-■;;.-,>•  3V.*?v 


IAI  {RARY 

rHH 

University  of  California. 

gift  ok 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  18Q4. 
Accessions  No .  Sip  %  *J  (& :  •      Class  No. 


I'HE 


HISTORY   OF  GREECE 


BY 


THOMAS  ^tlGffTLEY. 


TO    WHICH    IS    ADDED, 


A  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE   OF   CONTEMPORARY  HISTORY. 

BY 

JOSHUA    TOULM1N    SMITH, 

AUTHOR    OF    "  COMPARATIVE    VIEW    OF    ANCIENT    HISTORY,    AND 
EXPLANATION    OF    CHRONOLOGICAL    ERAS." 

V      Of  THB 

■        .        .  .    ?  .    - 

BOSTON: 

HILL1ARD,   GRAY,   AND    COMPANY 
1839. 


T>V 


^ 


/nrri 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1839, 

By  Hilliard,  Gray,  and  Company, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Massachusetts. 


STEREOTYPED  AT  THE 
BOSTON  TYPE  AND  STEREOTYPE  FOUNDRY. 


<v 


AUTHOR'S    PREFACE 


The  present  work  is  intended  to  supply  the  want  of 
a  good  History  of  Greece  for  schools.  It  claims,  how- 
ever, to  be  regarded  as  somewhat  more  than  a  mere 
school-book.  The  idea  of  a  popular  epitome,  which  I 
have  sought  to  realize  in  it,  is  that,  while  by  clear, 
animated,  and  graphic  narrative  it  should  interest  the 
young,  the  views  of  society  and  of  political  measures 
and  characters  should  be  such  as  not  to  be  disdained 
even  by  the  statesman. 

In  a  country  like  this,  where  almost  every  one  is 
called  upon  to  take  a  part  in  politics,  no  species  of 
knowledge  is  more  indispensable  than  history.  Under 
the  guidance  of  sound  sense,  without  which  knowledge 
is  of  little  avail,  it  is  our  surest  protection  against  wild 
political  theory,  and  enables  us  to  think  and  act  with 
confidence  and  security  in  public  emergencies.  Few, 
therefore,  will  deny  that  it  is  of  importance  that  correct 
ideas  on  this  subject  should  be  instilled  into  the  minds 
of  youth,  and  that  histories  intended  for  their  use  should 
be  something  better  than  mere  compilations.  But  the 
young  are  not  alone  to  be  considered ;  there  is  a  very 
numerous  class  of  grown  persons  who  feel  the  want  of 
sound  historic  knowledge,  but  have  not  time  for  reading 
voluminous  works,  and  have  a  just  contempt  for  the 
common  school  histories.     To  such  also  the  present 


IV 

volume  is  offered.  It  has  been  written  directly  from 
the  best  original  authorities  ;  and  the  works  of  the  ablest 
modern  writers  on  Grecian  history  and  antiquities  have 
been  diligently  studied  and  used.  It  may  suffice  to 
mention  the  names  of  Miiller,  Heeren,  Bockh,  and 
Wachsmuth  among  the  Germans,  and  of  Arnold  and 
Clinton  among  ourselves,  to  inspire  confidence.  The 
limits  to  which  I  deemed  it  prudent  to  confine  myself 
have  precluded  me  from  making  references  ;  but  when- 
ever I  coincide  with  these  writers  in  sentiment  or  ex- 
pression, it  will  of  course  be  inferred  that  I  am  their 
debtor. 

It  may  be  that,  in  reading  the  following  pages,  some 
persons  will  feel  disappointed  at  not  meeting  "  Plutarch's 
men,"  as  they  are  called.  The  reason  they  do  not  is, 
that  I  am  a  historian,  not  a  panegyrist ;  that  the  Greeks 
were  no  demigods,  but  men  like  ourselves,  with  all  our 
vices  and  infirmities;  and  that  history,  to  be  useful, 
should  be  true. 

There  may  be  others  who  think  that  Grecian  history, 
because  it  is  ancient,  can  be  of  little  use  at  the  present 
day.  But,  as  Dr.  Arnold  finely  observes,  history  knows 
not  this  distinction  of  ancient  and  modern  with  respect 
to  utility.  Man  has  always  been  the  same,  and  no  por- 
tion of  his  story  can  be  quite  devoid  of  use  and  interest. 
That  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome  is  even  far  more 
useful  than  the  greater  part  of  modern  history  ;  for  they 
were  free,  and  theirs  is  that  of  the  people,  not  of  the 
rulers.  The  most  important  and  instructive  history 
to  us  is  that  of  England  ;  next,  that  of  Greece  and 
Rome ;  and  then  I  would  say,  not  that  of  the  great 
kingdoms  and  empires,  but  of  the  Italian  republics  of 
the  Middle  Ages.     Why  is  Oriental  history,  in  general, 


AUTHOR  S    PREFACE. 


so  barren   of  instruction?     Simply,  because   it   is   the 
history  of  Khalifs,  Shahs,  and  Sultans,  not  of  the  people. 

London,  Jan,  1,  1835. 


The  improvements  (as  I  trust  they  will  be  considered) 
made  in  this  Second  Edition  are  as  follows.  Some 
errors  have  been  corrected,  and  some  omissions  sup- 
plied; the  authorities  are  given  as  in  the  History  of 
Rome ;  plans  of  Athens  and  Syracuse  are  added ; 
the  Greek  orthography  has  been  employed  instead  of 
the  Latin,  ei  having  replaced  e  or  i,  on  the  final  urn, 
and  os  in  many  cases  the  final  us ;  the  final  w  is 
marked  6,  as  in  Solon.  Finally,  the  plan  adopted  in 
the  History  of  Rome,  of  marking  the  penultimate  when 
long  otherwise  than  by  a  diphthong  or  position,  (cl  is 
not  such ;  we  say  Pericles,)  has  been  extended  to  this 
work  also. 

As  Mr.  Thirlwall's  History  of  Greece  (a  part  of 
which  has  been  published)  will  doubtless,  from  its  evident 
superiority,  take  the  place  of  those  of  Gillies  and  Mit- 
ford,  it  has  given  me  much  pleasure  to  observe  how  little 
difference  there  is  between  his  views  and  mine,  even  in 
the  early  parts,  where  so  much  is  left  to  conjecture. 
I  therefore  hope  that  the  present  summary  will  be 
regarded  as  a  good  introduction  to  his  more  compre- 
hensive history. 

T.  K. 

London,  Sept.  3, 1836. 


PREFACE 

TO    THE    AMERICAN    EDITION 


The  compilations  of  Goldsmith  and  others,  on  the  subject  of 
Grecian  History,  have  been  so  long  before  the  public,  and  the 
imperfections  and  incorrectness  of  all  of  them  have  been  so  long 
felt,  that  the  publishers  need  no  apology  for  offering  the  follow- 
ing recent  and  excellent  production  of  the  English  press  to 
the  American  public.  The  work  has  already  been  received  in 
Britain  with  the  highest  approbation. 

It  will  be  seen  by  the  Author's  Preface,  that,  while  this  work 
"  is  intended  to  supply  the  want  of  a  good  History  of  Greece 
for  schools,"  it  claims,  in  some  respects,  to  take  a  higher  stand 
than  a  mere  school-book ;  that  is,  while  it  gives  a  scrupulously 
accurate  and  concise  account  of  the  events  which  transpired  in 
the  country  where  civilization  and  the  arts  first  attained  to  their 
highest  point,  —  whence,  indeed,  much  has  been  derived  to  our 
own  time,  —  it  is  yet  presented  in  such  a  style  and  form  of  connected 
and  interesting  narrative,  that  the  most  fastidious  scholar  may 
derive  pleasure  and  instruction  from  its  perusal.  The  inspection 
of  the  following  pages  proves  most  satisfactorily  that  this  claim 
is  just.  The  publishers  have,  therefore,  prepared,  at  the  same  time 
with  an  edition  for  the  use  of  schools,  another,  more  suitable  for 
the  library. 

To  this  edition  a  Chronological  Table  of  Contemporary  Events 
in  other  countries  has  been  added.  It  has  been  compiled  with 
careful  accuracy,  and,  it  is  hoped,  will  render  the  work  still  more 
valuable  and  useful. 

The  publishers  have  prepared,  in  the  same  style,  the  "History 
of  Rome,"  by  the  same  author  —  an  equally  valuable  work,  and 
written  on  the  same  plan.  They  have  also  in  the  press  his 
"History  of  England." 

They  feel  assured  that  the  whole  series  will  prove  a  very 
valuable  addition  to  the  educational,  as  well  as  the  polite  litera- 
ture of  this  country. 


CONTENTS 


PART  I. 

ARISTOCRATIC  PERIOD. 

CHAPTER  I.  pagb 

Description  of  Greece 1 

CHAPTER  II. 

Original  State  of  Greece.  —  The  Pelasgians.  —  The  Heroic  Age.      8 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  Dorian  Migration,  or  Return  of  the  Heracleids 17 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Colonies 25 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Spartan  Constitution.  —  Lycurgus 30 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Messenian  Wars 42 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Early  State  of  Attica.  —  Crissaean  War.  — Legislation  of  Solon . .     55 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Time  of  the  Tyrants.  —  Peisistratus  and  his  Sons.  —  Legislation 
of  Cleisthenes.  —  War  of  Sparta  and  Argos 65 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Kingdom  of  Lydia.  —  Persia.  —  Invasion  of  Scythia  by  Darius. 
—  Revolt  of  the  Asiatic  Greeks 78 

CHAPTER  X. 

Invasion   of    Greece.  —  Battle   of   Marathon.  —  Aristeides  and 
Themistocles 90 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XI.  PAGE. 

March  of  Xerxes.  —  Preparations  of  the  Greeks.  —  Battle  of 
Thermopylae.  —  Battle  of  the  Artemision.  —  Attempt  on 
Delphi 99 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Burning  of  Athens.  —  Battle   of  Salamis.  —  Flight  of  Xerxes. 

—  Battle  of  Plataea.  —  Battle  of  Mycale 117 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Rebuilding  of  Athens.  —  Treason  and  Death  of  Pausanias.  — 
Flight  of  Themistocles.  —  Assessment  of  Aristeides.  —  His 
Death.  —  Victory  of  Cimon  at  the  Eurymedon 135 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Constitutions  of  Thessaly,  Boeotia,  and  other  Parts  of  Greece. 

—  Military  and  Naval  Affairs.  —  Literature 146 


PART   II. 
DEMOCRATIC  PERIOD. 


CHAPTER  I. 

State  of  Greece.  —  Revolt  of  the  Messenians.  —  War  of  Athens 
with  jEgina  and  Corinth.  —  Battles  of  Tanagra  and  CEnophyta. 

—  Athenian  Expedition  to  Egypt.  —  Battle  of  Coroneia. — 
Conquest  of  Samos. — Power  of  the  Athenians.  —  Character 

of  Pericles 153 

CHAPTER  II. 
War  between  the  Corinthians  and  Corcyraeans.  —  Siege  of  Pot- 
idsea.  —  Origin  of  the  Peloponnesian  War 166 

CHAPTER  III. 

Commencement  of  the  Peloponnesian  War.  —  Invasion  of  Attica. 

—  Plague  at  Athens.  —  Siege  of  Platrea.  —  Naval  Action  in  the 
Corinthian  Gulf.  —  Death  of  Pericles.  —  Revolt  of  Mytilcne. 
Escape  of  the  Platseans 174 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV.  PAGE, 

Surrender  of  Mytilene  and  Platsea.  —  Massacre  in  Corcyra.  — 
Transactions  in  Western  Greece. —  Occupation  of  Pylos. — 
Capture  of  the  Spartans 192 

CHAPTER  V. 

Second  Massacre  at  Corcyra.  —  Attempt  on  Megara.  —  Battle 
of  Delion.  —  Brasidas  in  Thrace.  —  Battle  of  Amphipolis,  and 
Death  of  Brasidas  and  Cleon.  —  Peace  of  Nicias 206 

CHAPTER   VI. 
Politics   of  Greece.  —  War  in  Peloponnesus.  —  Battle  or  Man- 
tineia.  —  Revolution  at  Argos.  —  Barbarity  of  the  Athenians 
at  Melos 216 

CHAPTER  VII. 
AiFairs  of  Sicily.  —  Athenian  Expedition  to  Sicily.  —  Prosecu- 
tion of  Alcibiades  for  Impiety.  —  Description  of  Syracuse. — 
Battle   at  Syracuse.  —  Preparations   for   the    War. — Siege   of 
Syracuse 224 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Distress  at  Athens.  — Voyage  of  Demosthenes.  —  Sea-fight  in 
the  Great  Harbor.  —  Attack  on  Epipolae.  —  Retreat  proposed. 

—  Defeat  of  the  Athenian  Fleet.  —  Flight  of  the  Athenian  Army. 

—  Its  Surrender 246 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Revolt  of  the  Allies.  — War  on  the  Coast  of  Asia.  —  Intrigues 
of  Alcibiades.  —  Revolution  at  Athens 257 

CHAPTER  X. 

Affairs  on  the  Coast  of  Asia.  —  Return  of  Alcibiades.  —  Lysan- 
der.  —  Callicratidas.  —  Battle  of  Arginusae.  —  Condemnation 
of  the  Generals.  —  Battle  of  iEgospotami.  —  Surrender  of 
Athens.  —  Death  of  Alcibiades 277 

CHAPTER  XI. 

The  Thirty  Tyrants.  —  Death  of  Theramenes.  —  Return  of  the 
Exiles.  —  End  of  the  Tyranny 296 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand.  —  Dercyllidas  in  Asia.  —  Conspir- 

B 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGX. 

acy  of  Cinadon.  —  Agesilaus  in  Asia.  —  Corinthian  or  First 
Boeotian  War.  —  Victories  of  Conon.  —  Exploit  of  Iphicrates. 
—  Progress  of  the  War.  —  Peace  of  Antalcidas 305 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Reduction  of  Mantineia.  —  Seizure  of  the  Cadraeia.  —  Olynthian 
War.  —  Reduction  of  Phlius.  —  Recovery  of  the  Cadmeia.  — 
Second  Boeotian  War.  —  Battle  of  Leuctra 327 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Spartan  Equanimity.  —  Jason  of  Pherse.  —  Second  Boeotian  War 
continued.  —  Return  of  the  Messenians.  —  Affairs  of  Pelopon- 
nesus. —  Battle  of  Mantineia 345 

CHAPTER  XV. 

General  Peace.  —  Last  Days  of  Agesilaus.  —  Death  of  Alexander 
of  Pherse.  —  Military  Affairs.  —  Literature 363 


PART   III. 

MONARCHIC  PERIOD. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Kingdom  of  Macedonia.  —  Philip  of  Macedonia.  —  Confederate 
War.  —  Phocian  or  Sacred  War.  —  Progress  of  Philip.  —  Sa- 
cred War.  —  War  in  Peloponnesus.  —  Olynthian  War 369 

CHAPTER  II. 

Peace  between  Philip  and  the  Athenians.  —  End  of  the  Sacred 
War.  —  Athenian  Statesmen.  —  Siege  of  Perinthus  and  Byzan- 
tium. —  Amphissian,  or  Third  Sacred  War.  —  Battle  of  Chaero- 
neia.  —  Death  of  Philip 389 

CHAPTER  III. 
Alexander  the  Great 406 

CHAPTER  IV. 

War  in  Greece.  —  Demosthenes  and  ^schines.  —  Harpalus  at 


CONTENTS.  XI 

PAGE. 

Athens.  —  Lamian    War.  —  Death    of    Demosthenes ;  —  his 
Character.  —  Death  of  Demades 415 

CHAPTER  V. 

Polysperchon  and  Cassander.  —  Death  of  Phocion.  —  Siege  of 
Megalopolis.  —  Contests  in  Greece.  —  Demetrius  Poliorc6tes 
in  Greece  and  in  Asia.  —  Irruption  of  the  Gauls.  —  Pyrrhus  in 
Peloponnesus ;  —  his  Death.  —  iEtolian  and  Achaean  Leagues. 
—  Aratus 426 

CHAPTER  VI. 

King  Agis  of  Sparta.  —  Cleomenes  of  Sparta.  —  Cleomenian 
War.  —  Battle  of  Sellasia.  —  Death  of  Cleomenes 443 

CHAPTER   VII. 

The  JEtolians  in  Peloponnesus.  —  Synod  at  Corinth.  —  Confeder- 
ate War.  —  Death  and  Character  of  Aratus 454 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

War  between  Philip  and  the  iEtolians.  —  War  between  Philip 
and  the  Romans.  —  Battle  of  Cynoscephalaa.  —  Peace  between 
Philip  and  Rome.  —  Independence  proclaimed  to  Greece 467 

CHAPTER  IX. 

War  against  Nabis.  —  Antiochus  the  Great  in  Greece.  —  War 
between  Sparta  and  the  League.  —  Death  of  Philopoemon.  — 
Last  Efforts  of  the  Greeks.  —  Destruction  of  Corinth.  —  Re- 
duction of  Greece  to  a  Province.  —  Conclusion 476 


Chronological  Table  of  Contemporary  History 489 


PRELIMINARY   NOTICES. 


Grecian  Chronology. 

The  ancient  Greeks  reckoned  by  periods  of  four  years,  named 
Olympiads,  from  the  Olympic  Games,  which  were  celebrated  at  the 
commencement  of  each  period.  They  were  counted  from  the  first 
new  moon  after  the  summer  solstice  :  the  first  Olympiad  began  July 
21-22,  776  B.  C. 

Dates  in  Olympiads  are  thus  expressed :  ex.  gr.  Ol.  42,  3,  that  is, 
the  3d  year  of  the  42d  Olympiad. 

To  reduce  Olympiads  to  years  before  Christ :  subduct  1  from  tho 
Olympiad  and  1  from  the  odd  years,  then  multiply  the  Olympiad 
by  4,  and  add  the  odd  years ;  subtract  the  product  from  776,  and 
the  remainder  will  be  the  number  sought.  Ex.  gr.  To  find  the  year 
B.  C.  answering  to  Ol.  72,  3,  the  year  of  the  battle  of  Marathon  :  72 
—  1  and  3  —  1=71,  2;  and  71  X  4  +  2  =  286;  and  776  —  286  = 
490.  The  reason  of  the  rule  is  this  :  the  year  is  the  3d  of  the  72d 
Olympiad  ;  consequently,  seventy-one  Olympiads  and  two  years  are 
past ;  the  years  which  they  make  are  therefore  to  be  subtracted 
from  776. 

Grecian  Measures  of  Length. 

The  Grecian  foot  was  somewhat  longer  than  the  English,  being  to  it 
as  1.007  to  1.  The  Stadium  was  equal  to  600  Greek  feet,  that  is,  to 
604^  feet  English,  and  was  therefore  less  than  the  furlong  (which 
contains  660  feet)  by  55-f  feet.  In  a  loose  approximative  way,  how- 
ever, we  may  reckon  the  stadia  as  furlongs,  eight  to  the  English 
mile. 

Grecian  Money. 

The  Attic  Drachma,  or  lowest  silver  coin,  has  been  found,  from  a 
comparison  of  several  pieces,  to  weigh  sixty-five  grains  Troy  j  hence 
the  following  values  result.  r.  , 

Obolus,  or  Obole 0    0     l{i 

Drachma  =  6  Oboles 0    0    9| 

Mna,  or  Mina  =  100  Drachmas 4    0    6| 

Talent  =  60  Mnas 241  13    4 

The  Medimnus  (somewhat  more  than  a  bushel)  of  wheat  cost  in 
Solon's  time  one  drachma ;  in  the  time  of  the  Corinthian  War,  three 
drachmas  ;  and  in  the  time  of  Demosthenes  it  was  cheap  at  five 
drachmas.  Taking  the  medium  price,  three  drachmas,  (2s.  5d.,)  we 
may  say,  in  a  loose  way,  that  money  was  of  twice  or  three  times  the 
value  in  those  times  that  it  is  now,  and  compute  the  sums  we  shall 
meet  in  the  following  pages  accordingly. 


THE 


HISTORY    OF    GREECE 


PART  I. 

ARISTOCRATIC    PERIOD 


CHAPTER   I. 

DESCRIPTION    OF    GREECE. 

The  great  mountain  range  which  commences  with  the 
Pyrenees  at  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  terminates  with  Mount 
Hsemus,  or  the  Balkan,  at  the  Euxine  Sea,  divides  the  three 
peninsulas  which  form  the  south  of  Europe  from  the  con- 
tinent which  extends  to  the  north.  In  its  course,  it  sends 
out  branches  on  either  side,  one  of  which  runs  down  Hel- 
las, or  Greece,  the  most  eastward  of  the  peninsulas.  This 
branch,  in  its  progress  southwards,  first  formed  the  limit  be- 
tween the  Ulyrians  on  the  west,  and  the  Paeonians  and  Ma- 
cedonians on  the  east.  It  then,  under  the  name  of  Pindus, 
divided  the  Hellenes*  of  Thessaly  from  their  semi-barba- 
rous kindred,  the  Epirotes,  who  dwelt  to  the  west.  This 
range  also  has  its  branches,  and  it  continues  its  course, 
under  various  names,  till  it  ends  at  the  sea. 

A  branch,  running  eastwards  from  the  commencement 
of  Pindus,  separates  Macedonia  from  Greece,  forming  the 

*  By  the  inhabitants,  the  country  was  named  Hellas,  (r'EUag,)  the 
people,  Hellenes,  (r> EXhjveg  ;)  the  Romans  called  the  former  Gratia, 
the  latter,  Greed. 

1  A 


»  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

northern  limit  of  this  last-named  country.  This  branch  is 
called  the  Cambunian  Mountains  ;  it  was  also  named  Olym- 
pus, from  the  lofty  snow-crowned  mountain  of  that  name, 
once  held  to  be  the  seat  of  the  Grecian  gods,  which  forms 
its  eastern  extremity.  A  narrow  valley  separates  Olympus 
from  Ossa,  which  rises,  in  form  like  a  dome,  on  the  south ; 
and  Ossa  is  joined  on  the  south  by  Pelion,  which  is  met 
by  a  ridge,  named  Othrys,  running  eastwards  from  Pindus. 
Parallel  to  Olympus  and  Othrys  on  the  south,  another  branch, 
named  CEta,  runs  from  the  chain  of  Pindus  to  the  sea. 

The  country  lying  between  Olympus  and  CEta  is  named 
Thessaly.  It  is  divided  into  two  portions  by  Mount  Othrys. 
The  northern,  which  may  be  called  the  Vale  of  the  Peneius, 
(Peneus,)  from  its  principal  river,  is  a  rich,  fertile  plain,  shut 
in  on  all  sides  by  mountains.  One  narrow  opening  between 
Olympus  and  Ossa,  the  romantic  glen  of  Tempe,  affords  an 
outlet  to  the  waters  of  the  limpid  Titaresius,  and  the  other 
streams  which  irrigate  the  valley.  The  Peneius  receives 
them  all,  and  pours  them  through  Tempe  into  the  sea. 
The  towns  of  the  Vale  of  the  Peneius  are  Tricca,  Larissa, 
Scotussa,  Crannon,  Pheree,  on  the  Lake  Bcebei's,  Pharsa- 
lus,  etc. 

A  road  over  Othrys,  by  the  castle  of  Thaumakia,  led  from 
the  Vale  of  the  Peneius  into  that  of  the  Spercheius.  This 
last  is  watered  by  the  Spercheius  and  its  tributary  streams, 
and  is  open  on  the  east  to  the  sea ;  by  two  bays  of  which, 
the  Pagasai'c  and  Maliac,  it  is  penetrated.  Its  towns  were 
Lamia,  Hypata,  Alus,  Larissa  Cremaste,  Iolcos,  Pagasoo,  etc. 

A  narrow  strip  of  land,  between  Ossa  and  Pelion  and  the 
sea,  extends  from  the  mouth  of  the  Peneius  to  that  of  the 
Bay  of  Pagasae  :  this  was  named  Magnesia,  and  was  con- 
sidered a  part  of  Thessaly. 

As  Tempe  is  the  only  entrance  into  Thessaly  on  the  north, 
so  the  only  passage  out  of  it  on  the  south  is  the  narrow  pass 
named  Pylre,  (Gates,)  or  Thermopylae,  (Hot-gates,)  from  its 
warm  springs,  which  runs  between  the  eastern  termination 
of  CEta  and  the  sea.      South-eastwards  from  CEta  rise  in 


DESCRIPTION    OF    GREECE.  3 

succession  the  hills  named  Cnemis,  Acontion,  and  Ptoon  ; 
which,  with  the  land  between  them  and  the  sea,  form  the 
Epicnemidian  and  Opuntian  Locris,  whose  only  towns  of 
note  were  Opus,  Scarpheia,  Nicaea,  and  Thronion. 

Messapion,  Mycalessos,  and  other  hills,  run  along  the 
coast,  from  Ptoon,  and  join  Mount  Parnes,  which,  running 
westwards,  meets  the  rugged  Cithaeron.  The  verdant  Heli- 
con, the  seat  of  the  Muses,  turns  northwards  from  Cithaeron, 
and  is  succeeded  by  Mount  Hadyleion,  which  joins  that  of 
Acontion.  The  region  thus  enclosed,  and  named  Boeotia, 
is  not  a  plain,  like  those  of  Thessaly,  but  rather  a  succession 
of  hill  and  dale,  and  plains  of  small  extent  and  great  fertility. 
It  is  divided  by  a  range  of  rocky  hills,  running  from  Heli- 
con to  Ptoon.  The  northern  part  contained  the  towns  of 
Orchomenus,  Chaeroneia,  Lebadeia,  Coroneia,  Aspledon, 
Haliartus,  Onchestus,  etc.  Its  principal  river  is  the  Cephis- 
sus,  which,  having  collected  the  waters  of  the  Valley  of 
Phocis  on  the  west,  enters  Bceotia,  at  the  pass  of  Elateia,  on 
the  north,  the  only  entrance  into  Bceotia,*  and  empties 
itself  into  Lake  Copais,  famous  for  its  delicious  eels.  Sub- 
terraneous passages,  thirty  stadia  in  length,  convey  the 
superfluous  waters  of  this  lake  to  the  sea  on  the  east.  The 
southern  portion  of  Bceotia  contained  the  towns  of  Thebes, 
Thespise,  and  Plataea.  Its  chief  stream  is  the  Asopus, 
which,  rising  in  Cithaeron,  enters  the  sea  near  Tanagra. 
The  coast  from  Locris  to  Attica,  containing  the  towns  of 
Anthedon,  Tanagra,  and  Oropus,  was  part  of  Bceotia,  as 
also  a  strip  of  coast  along  the  Corinthian  Gulf.  Bceotia, 
being  the  central  part  of  Greece,  and  affording  plains  of  some 
extent,  was  the  scene  of  most  of  the  great  land  battles  which 
occur  in  Grecian  history. 

South-east  of  Bceotia,  and  separated  from  it  by  the  range 
of  Parnes  and  Cithaeron,  runs  into  the  sea  the  peninsula  of 
Attica.  Hills,  some  rugged,  some  fruitful,  enclosing  valleys 
and  small,  fertile   plains,    occupy   the   greater   part   of  its 

*  When  we  call  Tempe,  Thermopylae,  and  the  present  one,  the  only 
entrances,  we  mean  exclusive  of  ways  over  the  mountains. 


4  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

surface.  The  chief  hills  are  Hymettus,  Pentelicus,  and  the 
promontory  of  Sunion;  the  most  extensive  plains  are  those 
of  Eleusis,  Athens,  Brauron,  and  Marathon.  Athens  and 
Eleusis  were  the  only  towns  of  note :  the  brooks  of  the 
Ilissus  and  Cephissus,  at  Athens,  have  obtained  a  celebrity 
not  proportioned  to  their  magnitude. 

Opposite  the  coast  of  Locris,  Bceotia,  and  Attica,  and 
separated  from  it  by  a  narrow  channel,  lies  the  island  of 
Eubcea,  extending,  in  a  length  of  twelve  hundred  stadia,  from 
the  Maliac  Bay  to  the  parallel  of  Brauron  in  Attica.  It 
contained  the  towns  of  Oreos,  Chalcis,  Eretria,  Carystus,  etc. 

West  of  Attica,  and  south  of  Cithaeron,  to  the  Corinthian 
Gulf,  extends  Megaris,  consisting  of  barren  hills  and  a  single 
plain,  on  which  stood  the  town  of  Megara,  with  a  port  on 
the  Saronic  Gulf. 

Between  Helicon  and  Parnassus,  in  a  valley  extending 
from  the  Corinthian  Gulf  to  the  Epicnemidian  Locris,  lies 
Phocis.  Its  towns  were  Delphi,  renowned  for  its  oracle, 
Stiris,  Panopeus,  Hyampolis,  Elateia,  etc. 

Parnassus,  Pindus,  and  CEta,  enclose  Dryopis  and  Doris 
to  the  north-west  of  Phocis ;  and  the  Western,  or  Ozolian 
Locris,  with  its  towns  of  Amphissa  and  Naupactus,  lies  west 
of  Phocis,  on  the  Corinthian  Guif. 

To  the  west  of  Locris  and  Parnassus,  and  extending 
northwards  to  Pindus  and  the  Bay  of  Ambracia,  lies  the 
mountainous,  but  not  unfertile,  iEtolia.  Its  towns  were 
Thermon,  Pleuron,  Calydon,  Chalcis,  etc.  The  river  Eve- 
nus,  rising  in  Mount  QEta,  runs  through  it  from  north  to 
south ;  the  Achelous,  flowing  from  Pindus,  forms  its  western 
limit. 

West  of  the  Achelous,  and  bounded  by  it  and  the  Ionian 
Sea,  lies  Acarnania.     Its  towns  were  Stratos,  Alyzia,  etc. 

The  peninsula  named  Peloponnesus  lies  to  the  south  of 
Greece,  to  which  it  is  united  by  a  neck  of  land  named  the 
Isthmus,  only  thirty-two  stadia  in  its  least  width.  The 
Oneian  Mountains,  which  run  south  from  Cithaeron,  termi- 
nate and  leave  a  plain  at  the  Isthmus,  which  extends  into 
Peloponnesus. 


DESCRIPTION    OF    GREECE.  O 

A  mountainous  quadrangle,  enclosing  a  district  divided 
into  separate  portions  by  lower  ranges,  and  sending  out 
arms  on  all  sides,  occupies  the  centre  of  Peloponnesus. 
The  mountains  named  Erymanthus,  Lampe,  Aroania,  and 
Cyllene,  form  the  north  side  of  the  quadrangle  ;  its  eastern 
side  is  composed  of  Artemision,  Parthenion,  and  Parnon. 
Those  of  Boreion,  Taygeton,  and  Lycaeon,  form  its  south 
side;  and  Pholoe,  with  the  mountains  which  unite  it  to 
Lycaeon,  close  it  in  on  the  west.  The  included  region  is 
named  Arcadia;  it  consists  of  mountain  ranges,  elevated 
plains,  deep  valleys,  ravines,  torrents,  lakes,  and  forests. 
Its  only  opening  is  on  the  west,  where  the  river  Alpheius 
issues,  carrying  with  it  the  waters  of  the  Ladon  and  other 
streams.  Some  streams  leave  it  on  the  east  by  subterrane- 
ous passages.  The  towns  of  Arcadia  were  Tegea  and 
Mantineia,  (both  standing  in  a  plain,  the  scene  of  many 
a  hard-fought  battle,)  Orchomenus,  Cleitor,  Stymphalus, 
Megalopolis,  etc. 

North  of  Arcadia,  the  mountains  gradually  sink  to  the  sea. 
The  narrow  strip  running  along  the  coast  opposite  ^Etolia 
and  Locris  was  named  Achaia.  It  contained  twelve  towns  — 
Dyme,  Patrae,  iEgion,  Pellene,  etc. 

To  the  east  of  Achaia,  on  the  coast,  was  the  small  state 
of  Sicyon;  and  bounded  by  them,  by  Argolis,  and  Arcadia, 
lay  the  equally  small  states  of  Phliiis  and  Cleonae. 

East  of  Sicyon,  in  the  plain  extending  through  and  from 
the  Isthmus,  and  along  the  Saronic  Gulf,  lies  the  district  of 
Corinth.  The  wealthy,  luxurious  city  of  that  name  was 
built  south  of  the  Isthmus,  at  the  foot  of  the  lofty  rock 
named  Aero-Corinth,  which  rises  abruptly  out  of  the  plain 
to  a  height  of  some  hundred  feet.  The  city  had  two  ports, 
Cenchreae  on  the  Saronic,  and  Lechaeon  on  the  Corinthian 
Gulf. 

A  peninsula  named  Argolis,  from  its  principal  town,  runs 

hence  in  a  south-east  direction.     Its  northern  side,  named 

the  Acte,  (Strand,)  contained  the  towns  of  Epidaurus  and 

Trcezen ;  its  southern  side,  those  of  Argos,  Mycenae,  Her- 

1* 


6  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

mione,  etc.  It  is  chiefly  composed  of  ranges  of  hills  and 
plains  along  the  coast,  like  the  opposite  Attica.  The  Ina- 
chus  and  Erasinus,  which  rise  in  Arcadia,  are  its  most 
important  streams. 

South-east  and  south  of  Arcadia  stretch  two  mountain 
ridges,  terminating  in  the  promontories  of  Malea  and 
Tsenaron.  They  enclose  a  fertile  valley,  watered  by  the 
pellucid  Eurotas,  and  then  receive  between  them  the  Laco- 
nian  Bay.  This  country  was  named  Laconia;  its  towns 
were  Sparta  or  Lacedaemon,  Amyclae,  Gytheion,  (Gythium,) 
on  the  gulf,  Epidaurus  Limera  on  the  east  coast,  etc. 

West  of  the  mountain  limit  of  Laconia  named  Taygeton, 
and  extending  thence  to  the  sea,  lies  Messene,*  one  of  the 
most  fertile  portions  of  Greece.  Joining  Taygeton,  and  at 
the  head  of  the  Messenian  Bay,  is  the  rich  plain  named 
Macaria,  [Happy,)  watered  by  the  Pamisus,  which,  though 
short  in  its  course,  and  unsung  by  the  poets,  is  one  of  the 
fullest  and  fairest  streams  of  Peloponnesus.  North  of 
Macaria,  and  environed  by  hills,  one  of  which  is  the 
ever-memorable  Ithome,  extends  the  plain  of  Stenyclaros. 
Westwards,  the  country  becomes  more  rugged  and  hilly. 

West  of  Arcadia,  extending  along  the  sea  from  Messene 
to  Achaia,  lies  Elis,  renowned  as  the  scene  of  the  Olympian 
games.  It  consisted  of  three  parts,  Triphylia,  Pisatis,  and 
Elis.  The  plain,  named  Hollow  Elis,  lying  between  the 
arms  of  Pholoe  and  Scollis,  is  the  largest  in  the  peninsula. 
The  chief  towns  were  Elis  and  Pisa,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Alpheius,  near  which  was  Olympia,  where  the  games  named 
from  it  were  celebrated. 

Greece  is  nearly  surrounded  by  water,  the  different  por- 
tions of  which  bore  peculiar  names.  The  Ionian  Sea 
washes  it  on  the  west,  sending  in  the  Corinthian  Gulf  to 
separate  the  western  part  of  Peloponnesus  from  Hellas 
Proper.  The  Cretan  Sea  succeeds,  from  which  the  Myrtoan 
runs  up  along  the  east  coast  of  Peloponnesus,  sending  in  the 

*  So  it  is  named  by  all,  from  Homer  to  Polybius.  This  last  writer, 
and  those  who  succeeded  him,  call  it  Messenia. 


DESCRIPTION    OF    GREECE.  7 

Bay  of  Argos  and  the  Saronic  Gulf;  which  last  is  on  the 
east,  what  the  Corinthian  is  on  the  west,  and  contains  the 
Islands  of  iEgina,  Calauria,  and  Salamis.  The  JEgean  Sea 
then  spreads  from  Greece  to  Asia. 

Numerous  islands  stud  these  seas.  In  the  Ionian,  opposite 
Acarnania  and  Elis,  lie  Cephallenia,  Ithaca,  and  Zacynthus. 
Off  Cape  Malea,  in  the  Cretan  Sea,  is  the  isle  of  Cythera, 
south-east  of  which  Crete  stretches  about  thirteen  hundred 
stadia  from  west  to  east :  the  White  Mountains,  and  Ida  and 
Dicte,  run  along  its  whole  length  :  its  north  side  is  the  most 
fertile.  The  chief  towns  were  Cydonia,  Lyctus,  Gortys,  or 
Gortyna,  and  Cnossus. 

The  islands  named  Sporades  {Scattered)  lie  north  of 
Crete ;  and  north-west  of  these,  in  the  ^Egean,  are  the  Cyc- 
lades,  (Circling,)  so  named  from  the  manner  in  which  they 
lie.  The  chief  of  these  are  Andros,  Tenos,  Delos,  Naxos, 
Paros,  Melos,  Cythnos,  and  Ceos.  Above  Eubcea  are  Scyros, 
Sciathos,Peparethos,  and  others.  Lemnos,  Thasos,  Samo- 
thrace,  and  Imbros,  lie  off  the  coast  of  Thrace.  Lesbos, 
Chios,  Samos,  Cos,  Rhodes,  and  others  of  less  note,  are  along 
that  of  Asia.  Each  island  had  a  town  of  its  own  name,  but 
Lesbos  and  Rhodes  had  each  more  than  one  town. 

Greece  thus  presents  to  view  a  land  divided  by  mountains, 
undulating  with  hills,  now  spreading  into  fertile  plains,  now 
contracting  into  deep  vales,  watered  by  streams,  of  which 
none  are  navigable,  and  many  are  dry  in  the  heats  of  sum- 
mer, while  clusters  of  islands  raise  their  verdant  heads  from 
the  sea,  the  apparent  remains  of  a  submerged  continent. 
The  whole  surface  of  this  Hellas,  so  renowned  in  history,  is 
(islands  included)  less  by  a  third  than  that  of  the  small  king- 
dom of  Portugal ;  but  its  extent  of  sea-coast  exceeds  that  of 
Italy  by  a  fifth,  and  is  more  than  double  that  of  France. 

Forest-  and  fruit-trees,  of  various  kinds,  grew  on  the  hills 
and  plains  of  Greece.  Attica  boasted  its  superior  olives : 
the  vine  and  fig-tree  were  every  where  to  be  seen.  Wheat, 
barley,  and  other  kinds  of  corn,  grew  in  all  parts.  Horses, 
asses,  mules,  sheep,  goats,  oxen,  and  swine,  fed  on  its  hills, 


8  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

vales,  and  plains.  Its  woods  and  mountains  harbored  hares, 
deer,  wild  boars,  and  other  game;  and  wolves  and  bears 
enticed  the  daring  hunter.  Fish  abounded  in  its  seas  and 
lakes. 

No  granite  peaks  tower  in  Hellas :  its  mountains  and  hills 
are  of  lime-  and  sand-stone,  forming  spacious  caverns,  and 
affording  sites  in  plains  for  strong  castles.  The  quarries 
of  Pentelicus,  Carystus,  and  Paros,  yielded  marble  in  abun- 
dance to  the  sculptor  and  architect.  The  mines  of  Eubcea 
gave  copper ;  those  of  Boeotia  and  Laconia,  iron ;  silver  came 
from  Laurion  in  Attica,  and  from  the  isle  of  Siphnos,  which 
last  also  yielded  small  quantities  of  gold. 

Such  was  Hellas,  whose  history  we  are  about  to  relate  — 
a  land  yielding  all  the  necessaries  and  most  of  the  luxuries 
of  life,  of  varied  surface,  of  temperate  climate,  lying  within 
a  moderate  distance  of  all  the  civilized  states  round  the 
Mediterranean,  and  inhabited  by  one  of  the  most  highly-en- 
dowed portions  of  the  human  race. 


CHAPTER   II. 


ORIGINAL    STATE    OF    GREECE. THE    PELASGIANS. THE 

HEROIC    AGE. 

Hellas,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  Europe,  was  peopled 
by  that  portion  of  mankind  named  the  Japhetian,  Caucasian, 
or  Indo-German  race ;  but  it  is  utterly  beyond  our  power  to 
say  at  what  time  this  event  occurred,  or  what  was  the  con- 
dition of  its  first  inhabitants.  That  they  were  not  in  the 
nomadic  state,  like  the  Turks  and  Arabs,  is  certain,  for 
Greece  affords  no  extensive  plains  for  the  herdsman  to  range 
with  his  cattle ;  and  the  theory  of  the  poets  and  philosophers 
of  its  later  ages,  that  their  forefathers  had  been  only  naked, 
acorn-eating  savages,  should  be  received  with  great  caution : 


THE    PELASGIANS.  9 

it  rests  on  no  positive  evidence,  and  is  manifestly  a  conse- 
quence of  the  autochthonic  theory,  or  that  which  supposes 
men  to  have  sprung  as  it  were  from  the  ground  like  plants, 
rude,  ignorant,  and  brutish  —  a  theory  utterly  at  variance 
with  experience. 

There  are  nations  of  which  the  original  condition  is  to 
be  learned  from  the  literature  of  some  cultivated  people, 
who  had  relations  of  peace  or  war  with  them.  It  is  thus 
that  we  derive  our  knowledge  of  the  early  state  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Germany,  Gaul,  and  Britain,  from  the  Roman 
writers.  There  are  other  nations  whose  history  is  only  to 
be  found  among  themselves  :  in  this  last  case,  it  is  always 
mythic,  or  fabulous,  at  the  commencement,  and  only  be- 
comes, strictly  speaking,  true,  when  it  is  contemporary  with 
the  events  which  it  records.  The  mythic  portion  is,  howev- 
er, by  no  means  totally  devoid  of  truth  ;  but  its  truth  is  more 
frequently  that  of  manners  and  institutions  than  of  events. 
The  history  of  Greece  is  of  this  last  kind ;  it  is  only  from  the 
Greeks  themselves  that  we  can  learn  their  early  history. 

When,  guided  by  the  dim  light  of  tradition,  we  attempt 
to  penetrate  the  obscurity  of  the  early  ages  of  Hellas,  we 
see  it  the  abode  of  one  race  of  men,  divided  into  various 
tribes.  The  name  usually  given  to  this  race  (but  which 
was  never  common  to  the  whole  of  it)  is  the  Pelasgian.  It 
appears  to  have  been  very  extensive,  occupying  not  merely 
Greece  and  its  islands,  but  the  greater  part  of  Italy  and 
Sicily,  and  the  west  coast  of  Asia  Minor  down  to  Mycale  ; 
for  a  similarity  of  religion,  manners,  language,  and  style  of 
architecture,  prevailed  in  all  these  countries. 

The  Pelasgians,  we  have  reason  to  suppose,  were  far 
removed  from  the  savage  state.  Their  modes  of  life,  it  is 
probable,  varied  according  to  the  nature  of  the  country ;  in 
the  mountainous  districts,  they  were  herdsmen  and  hunters ; 
in  the  fertile  plains,  agriculturists ;  fishers,  and  perhaps  tra- 
ders, on  the  coasts ;  for  it  is  by  no  means  improbable  that 
the  Phoenicians  exchanged  with  them,  as  they  did  with 
their  successors,  the  Hellenes,  the  luxuries  of  Asia  for  the 


10  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

produce  of  their  soil.  Agriculture  was,  however,  the  chief 
occupation  of  the  Pelasgians,  and  their  name  may,  without 
any  force,  be  derived  from  it :  *  their  favorite  abodes  seem 
to  have  been  the  plains  fertilized  by  streams  which  they 
named  argi}  and  on  which  they  erected  strong  larissm,  or 
castles,  for  their  security  against  plunderers.  These  build- 
ings were  composed  of  huge  masses  of  rude  stone,  put  to- 
gether without  cement.  They  are  named  Cyclopian  by 
later  ages,  as  if  built  by  the  imaginary  giants  called  Cyclopes, 
and  are  still  to  be  seen  in  Argolis,  Arcadia,  Bceotia,  and 
Epirus,  as  also  in  Italy,  (chiefly  in  the  country  of  the  Her- 
nicans,  J^quians,  and  Volscians,)  and  on  the  coast  of  Asia 
Minor  and  elsewhere. f 

As  an  agricultural  people  is  usually  under  the  monarchic, 
or  mingled  monarchic  and  aristocratic  form  of  government, 
we  may  suppose  such  to  have  been  the  constitution  of  the 
Pelasgic  states.  Their  religion  was  of  a  rural  character, 
and  they  worshipped  deities  presiding  over  the  various  parts 
of  nature,  the  givers  of  increase,  and  preservers  of  what 
had  come  into  being,  though,  perhaps,  without  bestowing  on 
them  any  particular  names.  The  offerings  made  to  their 
gods  were,  it  is  most  likely,  of  a  bloodless  nature;  and 
there  seems  to  be  little  reason  for  supposing  that  the  abom- 
ination of  human  sacrifices  prevailed  among  the  divine  or 
noble  ('5rot)|  Pelasgians.  The  people  of  Latium  in  Italy 
appear  to  have  preserved  the  Pelasgian  religion  in  greatest 
purity. 

Besides  the  Pelasgians,  tradition  has  preserved  the  names 
of  other  tribes  who  occupied  Greece  at  this  time.  The 
Caucones,  it  was  said,  dwelt  on  the  west  coast  of  Pelopon- 
nesus ;   the  Curetes  in  JEtolia ;  the  Carians   occupied  the 

*  For  another  and  probably  an  older  form  of  the  name  was  Pelargi, 
which  would  come  from  nllw,  to  be,  or  to  be  engaged  on,  and  aqyos,  or 
ae/qoq,  ager,  land. 

t  Strabo  (ix.  5.)  enumerates  thirteen  places  in  Europe  and  Asia 
named  Larissa. 

t  So  they  are  styled  by  Homer,  II.  x.  429.    Od.  xix.  177. 


THE    PELASGIANS.  11 

isles  of  the  iEgean ;  the  Leleges  inhabited  iEtolia,  Bceotia, 
Locris,  Megaris,  Eubcea,  Laconia,  and  Messene.  Nothing 
certain,  however,  can  be  learned  respecting  these  tribes,  or 
their  manners  and  institutions. 

In  this  period,  also,  tradition,  or  the  fancy  of  later  times, 
placed  the  arrival  of  colonies  from  Egypt  and  Asia.  Ce- 
crops,  a  native  of  Sai's  in  the  Egyptian  Delta,  is  said  to  have 
come  to  Attica  fifteen  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  where  he  taught  the  savages,  who  occupied 
it,  to  cultivate  corn,  and  gave  them  social  institutions. 
Danaiis,  a  native  of  Chemnis  in  Upper  Egypt,  came  to 
Argos,  and  the  government  was  resigned  to  him  by  the 
Pelasgian  prince  who  ruled  there.  Cadmus,  at  the  head  of 
a  colony  of  Phoenicians,  landed  on  the  coast  of  Bceotia,  and, 
proceeding  inwards,  founded  Thebes  in  a  fertile  valley  a 
hundred  and  forty  stadia  distant  from  the  sea.  Finally, 
Pelops,  a  Lydian  prince,  being  forced  to  quit  his  own 
country,  came  with  a  large  treasure  to  Peloponnesus,  and  by 
means  of  it  established  the  dominion  of  his  family  over 
nearly  the  whole  peninsula.  Lelex,  from  whom  the  name 
of  the  Leleges  was  derived,  is  also  said  to  have  been  an 
Egyptian. 

Not  a  single  one  of  these  colonists,  we  may  observe,  is 
mentioned  in  the  Homeric  poems,  almost  our  only  sure 
guide  for  these  times ;  and  scarcely  any  traces  of  Egyptian 
and  Asiatic  influence  are  to  be  discerned  in  the  state  of 
manners  which  these  poems  describe.  The  case  of  Cecrops 
is  peculiarly  liable  to  suspicion,  as  no  mention  whatever  of 
his  Egyptian  origin  occurs  for  thirteen  hundred  years  after 
the  assigned  date  of  his  arrival  in  Attica ;  and  the  supposi- 
tion of  the  Attic  population  having  been  originally  divided 
into  castes,  similar  to  those  of  Egypt,  is  a  very  unstable 
one ;  and,  even  allowing  its  truth,  such  a  division  might 
have  taken  place  without  the  operation  of  an  Egyptian  col- 
ony. The  fact  of  the  Phoenicians  having  communicated 
letters  to  the  Greeks  (as  they  undoubtedly  did)  is  no  con- 
vincing proof  of  their  having  settled  in  Boeotia ;  and  it  is 


12  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

rather  curious,  that  Homer,  whose  poems  chiefly  celebrate 
the  glories  of  the  house  of  Pelops,  in  the  time  of  his  grand- 
sons, should  have  taken  no  notice  of  his  Asiatic  origin. 

These,  however,  are  all  questions  of  minor  importance  in 
a  history  of  Greece  ;  for,  as  we  have  observed,  the  influence 
of  these  colonies  on  the  national  character  and  institutions 
is  inappreciable,  and  nowhere  is  a  national  character  more 
strongly  and  distinctly  marked  than  in  Hellas. 

It  can  hardly  be  supposed  that,  peaceful  and  industrious 
as  the  Pelasgians  may  have  been,  they  could  have  been 
favored  with  a  total  exemption  from  the  evils  of  war.  Dis- 
putes must  have  occasionally  arisen  among  the  various 
communities  into  which  they  were  divided;  and,  as  the 
strength  of  the  Cyclopian  larissce  proves,  they  must  have 
been  exposed  to  the  sudden  attacks  of  freebooters  from  the 
land  or  the  sea.  But  tradition  has  preserved  no  memorial 
of  any  of  these  events,  and  the  succeeding  period,  known 
under  the  name  of  the  mythic,  heroic,  Achaean,  or  Hellenic 
period,  appears  before  us  under  a  totally  different  character. 
Poetry  and  tradition  now  present  us  with  wars  and  battles, 
towns  besieged,  taken,  and  plundered,  naval  expeditions  to 
distant  regions,  numerous  exploits  of  single  heroes :  in  a 
word,  Greece  appears  as  if  growing  into  manhood,  and, 
conscious  of  inborn  strength,  making  trial  of  it  in  various 
directions. 

What  gave  occasion  to  this  change  (if  change  it  really 
was)  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Peculiar  circumstances  may 
have  given  a  martial  energy  to  the  hitherto  pacific  character 
of  the  agricultural  Pelasgians ;  or,  as  tradition  told,  a  tribe 
from  southern  Thessaly,  of  vigorous  character  and  martial 
habits,  may,  by  conquest  or  treaty,  have  acquired  the  do- 
minion over  the  peaceful  occupiers  of  the  valleys  and  plains 
of  the  south. 

According  to  mythologists,  a  flood  of  water  once  over- 
spread continental  Greece,  from  which  Deucalion  and  his 
wife  Pyrrha  alone  escaped.  After  the  flood,  they  had  a  son, 
named  Hellen,  who  was  the  father  of  Dorus,  iEolus,  and 


THE    HEROIC    AGE.  1$ 

Xuthus,  which  last  was  the  father  of  Ion  and  Achaeus. 
This  genealogy,  it  is  probable,  is  not  to  be  understood  liter- 
ally ;  and  all  we  are  to  collect  from  it  is,  that,  at  the  time  it 
was  framed,  the  whole  of  the  people  of  Greece  were  com- 
prised under  the  name  of  Hellenes,  but  were  divided  into 
the  separate  races  of  Dorians,  ^Eolians,  AchaBans,  and  Ioni- 
ans ;  between  which  last  two  a  more  intimate  relation  pre- 
vailed, which  was  expressed  by  making  the  personifications 
of  them  sons  of  one  father,  and  distinct  from  the  other  two, 
which  were,  perhaps,  regarded  as  elder  branches  of  the 
Hellenic  family. 

By  those  who  maintain  that  Deucalion,  Hellen,  and  his 
sons,  were  real  personages,  it  is  said  that  the  country  in 
which  they  originally  dwelt  was  Phthiotis,  in  southern 
Thessaly,  where,  in  a  rich  and  fertile  land,  the  numbers  of 
their  subjects  rapidly  increased;  and  the  princes  of  the 
family  of  Hellen  growing,  in  consequence,  more  powerful 
every  day,  they,  partly  by  conquest,  partly  by  marriage, 
partly  by  invitation,  became  the  rulers  of  most  districts  of 
Greece,  to  whose  inhabitants  (mostly  Pelasgians)  they  im- 
parted the  Hellenic  language,  manners,  and  institutions.  It 
is  certainly  in  favor  of  this  hypothesis  that  Hellas,  originally, 
it  would  appear,  only  the  name  of  a  district  of  Phthiotis, 
became  that  of  the  entire  country.*  It  is  against  it,  that 
the  name  Hellenes,  in  this  extent,  is  unknown  to  Homer, 
who  calls  the  Greeks  only  Argians,  Danaans,  and  Achasans. 

Laying  aside,  therefore,  all  conjectures  on  this  obscure 
subject,  we  will  take  a  view  of  the  heroic  age  of  Greece,  as 
it  is  presented  in  the  mirror  of  the  Homeric  poems ;  which, 
though  they  probably  did  not  receive  the  form  in  which 
they  have  come  down  to  us  till  long  after  the  heroic  age 
had  passed  away,  were  doubtless  framed  from  poems  and 
traditions  that  had  descended  from  that  age 

*  This  does  not,  however,  seem  to  be  of  much  weight.  Italy  was 
at  first  the  name  of  only  the  southern  portion  of  the  peninsula  ;  Libya, 
of  a  district  west  of  Egypt ;  Asia,  of  the  plain  about  the  Cayster  j 
Europe,  of  the  main  land  of  Greece. 

2 


14  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

The  Achaeans,  or  the  inhabitants  of  Hellas  of  those  days, 
appear  in  these  poems  as  a  partially  civilized  race,  skilled 
in  agriculture  in  all  its  different  branches,  cultivating  the 
olive,  the  vine,  and  the  various  kinds  of  corn,  and  keeping 
both  large  and  small  cattle.  They  were  of  course  acquaint- 
ed with  all  the  necessary  arts  ;  and  the  smith,  the  carpenter, 
and  even  the  goldsmith,  are  spoken  of  in  the  poems.  They 
had  wheel-carriages,  and  consequently  roads.  They  were 
by  no  means  ignorant  of  navigation ;  and,  though  their 
vessels  were  undecked,  they  made  voyages  through  all  parts 
of  the  ^gean  to  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  and  even  as  far  as 
Sidon  and  Egypt.  To  the  west,  they  probably  visited  Italy 
and  Sicily.  Phoenician  traders  resorted  to  their  ports, 
where  they  bartered  the  manufactures  and  productions  of  the 
East.  A  martial  spirit  animated  the  whole  population  ; 
petty  warfare  was  of  frequent  occurrence ;  flocks  and  herds 
were  carried  off;  towns  were  plundered  and  burnt,  women 
and  children  dragged  away  into  slavery.  In  times  of  peace, 
or  in  the  intervals  of  war,  music,  poetry,  and  dancing,  en- 
livened the  feasts  of  the  Achaean  nobles,  and  the  character 
of  the  poet  (dodder)  was  held  in  high  estimation. 

Like  almost  every  other  people  in  a  similar  state  of  socie- 
ty, the  Achaeans  were  divided  into  two  classes  or  orders, 
namely,  the  nobles  and  the  simple  freemen.  The  line  of 
distinction  between  these  orders  was  drawn  clear  and  sharp, 
and  was  not  to  be  passed ;  but  whence  it  arose  is,  in  this 
case,  as  in  most  others,  impossible  for  us  to  determine.  As 
it  is  to  be  found  in  countries  in  which  there  are  no  traces 
of  conquest,*  and,  as  the  lower  class  in  Hellas  at  this  time 
present  not  the  slightest  appearance  of  serfs  bound  to  the 
soil,  we  are  not  justified  in  assenting  to  the  opinion  of  those 
who  suppose  them  to  be  the  Pelasgians  reduced  to  serfship 
by  the  victorious  Hellenes. 

*  In  heathen  Scandinavia,  for  example,  which  offers  so  many  points 
of  resemblance  to  Greece  in  the  heroic  age.  Nowhere  is  the  line  of 
distinction  between  the  chiefs  or  nobles  and  the  common  people 
more  determinate  than  in  the  Polynesian  Islands ;  yet  here  there  is  no 
vestige  whatever  of  conquest. 


THE    HEROIC    AGE.  15 

The  nobles  were  the  owners  of  the  soil,  and  they  proba- 
bly gave  the  use  of  it  to  the  freemen  for  a  fixed  share  of 
the  produce.  The  latter  dwelt  on  the  land;  whence  it 
would  appear  they  derived  their  appellation  of  Demos  ;  *  the 
abode  of  the  noble  was  usually  a  castle  on  an  eminence,  in 
the  midst  of  his  lands;  a  portion  of  the  Demos  probably 
resided  in  cottages  at  its  foot,  and  this  castle  and  subject 
village  were  the  origin  of  the  future  town.  The  appearance 
of  Greece  in  the  heroic  age,  in  this  as  in  many  other  points, 
presents  a  strong  resemblance  to  that  of  Europe  in  the 
middle  ages ;  but  the  condition  of  the  free  Achaean  was  far 
preferable  to  that  of  the  feudal  serf  or  villain. 

The  nobles  formed  an  aristocracy,  at  the  head  of  which, 
in  every  state  of  Hellas,  was  a  hereditary  king,  of  limited 
authority.  In  both  king  and  nobles,  high  birth  or  descent 
from  noble  ancestors  was  a  requisite  condition  ;  the  lineage 
of  the  king,  in  particular,  was  generally  traced  up  to  one  of 
the  gods  whom  the  people  adored.  But  birth  alone  did  not 
suffice  to  secure  respect :  strength  of  body  and  vigor  of 
mind,  skill  in  martial  exercises,  and  eloquence,  justice, 
and  generosity,  were  required  from  the  prince  or  noble  who 
claimed  obedience. 

No  traces  of  taxes,  and  few  of  tribute,  appear  in  this  age  . 
the  nobles  lived  from  the  produce  of  their  lands,  the  king 
from  that  of  his  own  lands,  and  of  the  domain  (li^uevog)  as- 
signed him.  He  had  a  share  of  the  booty  gained  in  war,  as 
he  was  always  the  leader  of  his  people,  and  gifts  were  occa- 
sionally presented  him  by  his  subjects.  The  king  and  the 
nobles  were  the  dispensers  of  justice,  which  they  administered 
openly  in  the  presence  of  the  people  :  they  likewise  deliber- 
ated before  them  on  affairs  of  state ;  and,  though  the  people 
had  not,  strictly  speaking,  a  voice  in  these  matters,  their 
approbation,  or  the  contrary,  must,  to  a  certain  extent,  have 
had  the  force  of  public  opinion.  Finally,  the  king  officiated 
as  priest  in  the  public  sacrifices  and  worship  of  the  gods. 

*  Jijuog,  from  dipw^to  cultivate,  or  perhaps  from  dij,  (Doric  da,)  the 
same  as  yij,  land. 


16  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

The  religion  of  the  Achaeans  consisted  chiefly  in  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Olympian  gods  —  deities  whose  abode  was 
supposed  to  be  the  summit  of  Mount  Olympus,  whence  they 
extended  their  power  and  their  superintendence  over  the 
entire  of  Hellas,  or  perhaps  of  the  earth.  They  adored 
them  by  prayers  and  sacrifices,  by  temples  and  consecrated 
portions  of  land.  The  oracles  of  Dodona  and  Delphi  were 
supposed  to  announce  their  will  to  man.  The  soothsayer 
(fi&vri;)  also  discerned  the  will  of  the  gods  in  the  flight  of 
birds,  the  flash  of  lightning,  the  entrails  of  beasts,  and  other 
signs.  The  religious  system  of  the  Achaeans  seems  to  have 
developed  itself,  along  with  the  character  of  the  people, 
from  the  more  rural  one  of  the  Pelasgians.  The  gods  of 
the  Achaeans  had  all  the  passions  and  appetites  of  men,  and 
the  life  they  led  in  the  palace  of  Zeus,  their  sovereign, 
exactly  resembled  what  was  witnessed  in  the  castle  of  the 
Achaean  prince. 

The  Achaean  warriors  were  led  to  battle  by  their  king. 
The  common  people  followed  their  chiefs  on  foot,  indiffer- 
ently armed  with  bows  and  other  weapons.  The  nobles 
mostly  fought  from  war-chariots,  like  the  warriors  of  Asia, 
Egypt,  and  Britain.  These  chariots  were  two-wheeled,  and 
drawn  by  two  or  three  horses ;  they  carried  two  warriors, 
both  nobles,  one  to  fight,  the  other  to  manage  the  horses. 
The  nobles  fought  with  spears,  swords,  and  bows ;  shields, 
helmets,  breastplates,  girdles,  and  greaves,  protected  them : 
brass  (%<xlxog)  was  the  metal  of  which  their  arms  and 
armor  were  usually  formed.  Captives  taken  in  battle  were 
reduced  to  slavery;  they  were  either  sold  to  strangers,  or 
retained  as  domestic  servants  in  the  family  of  the  captor. 
When  a  town  was  taken  by  storm,  death  was  the  lot  of 
the  men,  slavery  that  of  the  women  and  children.  It  is 
not  improbable,  though  we  have  no  direct  proof  of  it,  that 
the  sale  of  slaves  formed  a  part  of  the  traffic  carried  on  with 
the  Phoenicians. 

The  copious  mythology  of  Greece,  which  is  nearly  con- 
fined to  this  period,  narrates  numerous  adventures  of  single 


THE    DORIAN    MIGRATION.  17 

heroes,  such  as  Hercules  and  Theseus.  The  great  public 
events  which  it  records  are,  the  expedition  of  the  Argonauts 
to  Colchis,  at  the  extremity  of  the  Euxine  Sea,  in  the  ship 
Argo,  in  quest  of  the  Golden  Fleece ;  the  wars  of  Thebes, 
in  which,  in  consequence  of  the  dispute  for  the  throne,  be- 
tween Eteocles  and  Polyneices,  the  sons  of  the  unhappy 
CEdipus,  a  Peloponnesian  army  twice  invaded  Boeotia,  and 
finally  took  the  city  of  Thebes;  the  war  of  Troy,  caused  by 
the  abduction  of  Helena,  wife  to  the  king  of  Sparta,  by  a 
son  of  the  monarch  of  Troy  in  Asia  —  the  theme  of  Homer's 
immortal  poetry.  The  details  of  these  events  belong,  how- 
ever, to  mythology,  rather  than  history,  and  therefore  find 
their  more  appropriate  place  in  works  on  that  subject. 

During  the  heroic  age,  Minos,  the  lawgiver  and  king  of 
Crete,  is  said  to  have  established  a  powerful  marine,  and  to 
have  extended  his  dominion  over  the  isles  of  the  iEgean, 
Attica,  and  even  as  far  as  Italy  and  Sicily.  The  truth  of 
this  dominion  of  the  Cretan  monarch  rests  on  the  same 
foundation  with  that  of  the  other  events  of  this  mythic  age, 
and  it  must  stand  or  fall  along  with  them. 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE    DORIAN    MIGRATION,    OR    RETURN    OP    THE    HERACLEIDS. 

The  power  of  the  Achseans  may  be  regarded  as  being  at 
its  height  at  the  time  when  their  united  forces  (if  truth  be 
transmitted  to  us  in  the  tales  of  the  poets)  overturned  the 
kingdom  of  Troy.  But  the  absence  of  the  chiefs  from  their 
homes  for  a  space  of  ten  years  must  have  tended  to  weaken 
their  authority,  and  the  Homeric  and  Cyclic*  poems  ao 

*  The  Cyclic  poets  are  those  who  succeeded  Homer,  and  composed 
works  on  the  mythic  events  anterior  or  subsequent  to  the  action  of  the 

Ihas. 

2*  c 


18  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

cordingly  set  before  us  scenes  of  murder,  expulsion,  and 
confusion,  in  the  several  royal  houses.  These  evils,  however, 
appear  to  have  been  transient,  and  the  state  of  society  to 
have  remained  nearly  unchanged  for  some  space  of  time. 

Troy  is  said  to  have  been  taken  in  the  year  1184  B.  C. 
Fifty  years  after  this  event,  a  portion  of  the  Thesprotians  of 
Epirus,  we  are  told,  crossed  the  mountain  barrier  between 
their  country  and  Thessaly,  and  invaded  the  vale  of  the 
Peneius.  In  cases  of  this  kind,  if  the  people  of  the  in- 
vaded country  are  defeated  in  battle,  they  lose  their  lands, 
and  their  only  alternatives  are  to  remain  and  cultivate  them 
as  the  tenants  of  the  new  lords,  or  to  migrate  and  seek 
settlements  elsewhere ;  and  thus  they  who  have  been  van- 
quished, and  have  lost  their  own  lands,  often  appear  as 
conquerors  in  another  quarter.  So  it  was  in  the  present 
case ;  a  portion  of  the  Achaean  race  remained  in  Thessaly, 
the  tenants  of  the  Thesprotians;  the  more  enterprising 
quitted  the  country  they  had  lost,  and,  invading  Boeotia,  ex- 
pelled a  part  of  its  inhabitants,  and  seized  their  lands. 

These  invasions  do  not  seem  to  have  been  productive  of 
any  important  consequences ;  but,  thirty  years  later,  that  is, 
eighty  years  after  the  Trojan  war,  the  vicinity  of  Boeotia 
sent  forth  a  body  of  invaders,  whose  successes  altered  the 
appearance  and  condition  of  a  large  portion  of  Greece; 
this  was  the  celebrated  Dorian  Migration,  or  Return  of  the 
Heracleids.  We  will  relate  it  in  the  mythic  form  in  which 
it  has  been  transmitted  to  us,  and  then  endeavor  to  show 
what  may  have  been  its  real  nature  and  course.* 

According  to  the  poets,  the  royal  family  of  Argos,  named 
the  Perseids,  derived  their  lineage  and  name  from  Perseus, 
the  son  of  the  god  Zeus  by  Danae,  a  maiden  descended  from 
the  Egyptian  Danaiis.  Alcmena,  a  granddaughter  of  Per- 
seus, and  wife  to  her  cousin  Amphitryon,  the  son  of  Alcasus, 
Perseus'  eldest  son,  bore  to  the  same  god  a  son  named 
Hercules,  who,  as  poets  tell,  was,  by  a  stratagem  of  the 
queen  of  heaven,  deprived  of  his  birthright,  and  made  the 

*  Apollodorus,  ii.  8. 


THE    DORIAN    MIGRATION.  19 

subject  of  his  cousin  Eurystheus,  the  son  of  a  younger  son 
of  Perseus.  The  right  to  the  throne,  therefore,  lay  with 
Hercules,  and  consequently  descended  to  his  children. 
After  the  assumption  of  that  hero  to  heaven,  Eurystheus, 
who  had  been  his  persecutor  in  life,  continued  his  hostility 
to  his  children,  whom  he  forced  to  fly  from  Peloponnesus. 
They  sought  refuge  with  Ceyx,  king  of  Trachis,  at  Mount 
(Eta  :  but  after  some  time,  this  prince  being  menaced  with 
vengeance  by  Eurystheus,  they  quitted  Trachis,  and  coming 
as  supplicants  to  Athens,  sought  protection.  The  Athe- 
nians, who  always  held  sacred  the  rights  of  hospitality, 
refusing  to  give  them  up  to  Eurystheus,  he  led  an  army  into 
Attica;  but  his  forces  were  defeated  and  all  his  sons  slain, 
and  he  himself,  as  he  fled  in  his  chariot  along  the  pass  of 
the  Scironian  rocks,  fell  by  the  hands  of  Hyllus,  the  son  of 
Hercules.  The  Heracleids  now  entered  Peloponnesus,  and 
became  masters  of  the  whole  country;  but  the  following 
year  a  pestilence  broke  out,  and  the  oracle  at  Delphi,  on 
being  consulted,  said,  that  the  Heracleids  were  the  cause, 
who  had  returned  before  their  time.  They  therefore  aban- 
doned the  country,  and  went  and  dwelt  at  Marathon  in 
Attica. 

After  some  time,  Hyllus  consulted  the  oracle,  and  was 
told  to  wait  for  the  third  crop,  and  then  to  return  by  the 
strait.  Supposing  it  to  be  the  third  year  and  the  Isthmus 
that  were  meant,  after  waiting  the  due  time,  he  attempted  to 
pass  the  Isthmus,  but  met  with  only  defeat  and  death  from 
the  Pelopids,  who  now  occupied  the  throne.  Other  attempts 
proved  equally  fruitless :  at  length,  after  many  years,  the 
grandsons  of  Hyllus,  Temenus,  Aristodemus,  and  Cres- 
phontes,  consulted  the  oracle,  which  still  gave  the  same 
response ;  and  Temenus  making  answer  that  when  they  had 
followed  it  they  had  proved  unfortunate,  the  god  replied  that 
it  was  the  third  crop  (generation)  of  men,  not  of  the  ground 
he  had  meant,  and  that  the  passage  should  be  made  by  sea 
in  the  narrow  part  of  the  gulf  of  Corinth.  They  now  col- 
lected an  army,  and,  building  ships  at  a  place  thence  named 


20  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Naupactus,  (Ship-buildirig,)  prepared  to  pass  over.  While 
they  were  here,  Aristodemus  was  struck  with  lightning,  and 
died,*  leaving  two  sons,  named  Eurysthenes  and  Procles ; 
and  a  soothsayer  having  been  slain  by  one  of  the  Heracleids, 
the  anger  of  the  gods  was  manifested  by  a  storm  which  de- 
stroyed their  ships,  and  a  famine  which  forced  their  army  to 
disperse. 

The  oracle,  being  consulted,  directed  that  the  homicide 
should  go  into  exile  for  two  years,  and  that  they  should 
take  the  three-eyed  man  for  their  guide.  The  former  part 
of  the  response  was  easy  to  obey ;  the  latter  was  of  doubt- 
ful meaning.  They  sought  after  a  three-eyed  man,  and  at 
length  meeting  an  ^Etolian,  named  Oxylus,  who  was  blind 
of  an  eye,  and  was  mounted  on  a  horse,  they  judged  him 
to  be  the  person  designated  by  the  oracle,  and  made  him 
their  leader.  When  they  landed  in  Peloponnesus,  Tisame- 
nus,  son  of  Orestes,  son  of  Agamemnon,  gave  them  battle. 
He  was  defeated  and  slain;  and  on  the  side  of  the  invaders 
fell  Pamphylus  and  Dyman,  the  sons  of  the  Dorian  king 
JEgimius. 

The  victors  now  prepared  to  divide  the  realm  of  the 
vanquished  prince.  Elis,  according  to  agreement,  being 
assigned  to  Oxylus,  they  raised  three  altars  to  Father 
Zeus,  and,  having  offered  sacrifice  upon  them,  proposed  to 
cast  lots  for  their  respective  shares ;  Argos  being  the  first 
lot,  Lacedaemon  the  second,  and  Messene  the  third.  As 
the  mode  adopted  was  for  each  to  cast  a  pebble  into  an 
urn  of  water,  Cresphontes,  who  was  desirous  of  getting 
Messene,  cast  in  a  piece  of  earth,  while  Temenus  and  the 
sons  of  Aristodemus  threw  in  pebbles;  and,  as  the  earth 
dissolved,  the  other  two  lots  were  of  course  first  drawn, 
and  he  gained  his  object.f  It  was  said,  too,  that  on  the 
altar  for  Argos  was  found  a  toad,  on  that  of  Lacedaemon 

*  The  Spartan  tradition  (Herod,  vi.  52.)  made  him  live  to  share  in 
the  conquest. 

t  The  legend,  as  related  by  Pausanias,  (iv.  3.  5,)  differs  slightly 
from  this. 


THE    DORIAN    MIGRATION.  21 

a  serpent,  and  on  that  of  Messene  a  fox,  —  emblematic  of 
the  future  characters  of  these  nations. 

Such  is  the  form  in  which  the  important  event  of  the 
conquest  of  Peloponnesus  has  been  transmitted  to  us,  and 
its  claims  to  the  name  of  strict  historic  truth  are  evidently 
no  better  founded  than  those  of  the  Trojan  war.  The  fol- 
lowing may,  perhaps,  be  regarded  as  a  nearer  approach  to 
the  real  state  of  the  case. 

The  conquerors  of  the  Peloponnesus  were  evidently  the 
Dorians;  for  a  new  dialect,  new  manners  and  institutions 
were  introduced,  and  their  descendants  always  bore  the 
name  of  Dorians.  These  were  a  tribe  whose  first  seats 
appear  to  have  been  about  Mount  Olympus,  whence  they 
migrated  southwards,  and  settled  in  the  district  named  from 
them  Doris,  between  Mount  CEta  and  Parnassus.  It  is 
certainly  by  no  means  an  improbable  event  that  a  branch 
of  the  royal  family  of  Argos,  being  driven  from  their  paternal 
seats,  may  have  sought  to  allure  a  mountain  tribe  to  aid 
in  recovering  them,  by  the  prospect  of  the  acquisition  of 
rich,  fertile,  and  cultivated  lands.  But  when  we  consider 
the  highly  mythic  character  of  Perseus  and  Hercules,  their 
supposed  ancestors,  and  the  many  improbabilities  which 
this  account  involves,  we  may  incline  to  regard  this  sup- 
posed descent  of  the  chiefs  of  the  conquering  nation  from 
the  royal  line  of  Argos,  as  a  late  fiction,  devised  to  give 
legitimacy  to  their  possession.  It  would  then  appear  more 
probable  that  the  Dorians,  a  mountain  race,  feeling  excess 
of  population,  and  want  of  room,  or,  perhaps,  urged  merely 
by  the  desire  of  change,  or  pressed  on  in  consequence  of 
the  migration  of  the  Thesprotians  into  Thessaly,  or  excited  by 
their  example,  might,  like  the  Helvetians  in  the  time  of 
Caesar,  have  resolved  to  quit  their  mountains  and  seek 
their  fortune  in  Peloponnesus.  As  the  Isthmus  was  remote 
from  them,  and  might  be  easily  guarded,  they  made  a  treaty 
of  alliance  and  division  of  conquests  with  a  portion  of  the 
./Etolians,  who  dwelt  to  the  south  of  them ;  and  vessels  of 
various  kinds  being  constructed   or   collected  at  the  nar- 


22  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

rowest  part  of  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  the  allies  passed  over. 
That  it  was  not  at  the  Isthmus  they  entered,  is  evident ;  for, 
according  to  all  testimony,  Corinth  was  the  last  of  their 
conquests. 

The  Dorians  were  accompanied  on  their  expedition  by 
their  wives  and  children.  It  is  computed  that  the  number 
of  the  men  may  have  been  about  twenty  thousand  —  the  same 
number  that  the  Duke  of  Normandy  led  to  the  conquest  of 
England.*  There  is  evidence  enough  remaining  to  prove 
that  the  Peloponnesus  was  not  won  in  a  single  battle,  but 
was  gradually,  and,  in  some  cases,  slowly,  gained.  The 
^Etolians  appear  to  have  acquired,  by  peaceful  composition, 
preeminence,  and  a  share  of  the  land  from  the  people  of 
Elis,  to  whom  they  were  akin.  The  Arcadians  would  also 
seem  to  have  been  friendly  disposed  towards  the  Dorians,  as 
they  gave  them  a  passage  through  their  country,  and  in 
some  places  treachery  or  agreement  with  portions  of  the 
Achaeans  facilitated  the  Dorian  conquests. 

It  was  always  the  custom  of  the  descendants  of  the 
Dorians,  transmitted  to  them,  probably,  from  their  fore- 
fathers, to  fight  on  foot,  in  full  armor,  and  in  close  columns; 
and  supposing  the  Achreans'  mode  of  fighting  to  be  that 
described  above,  after  Homer,  we  may  easily  see  how  in- 
ferior they  must  have  proved  in  the  field  to  the  invaders. 
But  it  may  be  said,  their  towns,  such  as  Tiryns  and  Mycena?, 
were  strong,  fenced  in  by  their  huge  Cyclopian  walls,  and 
the  Dorians  were  never  skilled  in  besieging.  Here,  how- 
ever, again  tradition  comes  to  our  aid  ;  the  places  were 
shown  on  which  the  Dorian  invaders  were  said  to  have  fixed 
their  permanent  camps  in  the  proximity  of  Argos  and 
Corinth,  whence  they  harassed  the  people  of  these  towns 
till  they  forced  them  to  a  composition. 

In  antiquity,  the  different  races  were  distinguished  by 
their   predilection   for   different   political   numbers.       The 

*  Sismondi,  Histoire  des  Francois,  iv.  353.  Mackintosh's  History 
of  England,  i.  97. 


THE    DORIAN    MIGRATION.  23 

Dorian  number  was  three;  and  hence  we  find  that  three 
was  the  number  of  the  great  division  of  their  conquests  in 
Peloponnesus,  —  Argos,  Laconia,  Messene.  The  Dorians 
of  Argos  extended  their  power  northwards,  and  Phlius, 
Sicyon,  Corinth,  Epidaurus,  and  Troezen,  and  finally,  the 
isle  of  JEgina,  became  Dorian.  When  Corinth  grew  pow- 
erful, an  attempt  was  made  to  extend  the  Dorian  name  be- 
yond the  Isthmus,  and  Megaris  was  won;  but  the  efforts 
against  Attica,  as  we  shall  see,  were  without  effect. 

The  Dorians,  also,  —  it  is  uncertain  at  what  time,  — 
passed  over  to  Crete,  and,  acquiring  the  supremacy  in  that 
island,  as  in  Peloponnesus,  gave  the  Dorian  character  to  its 
language  and  institutions. 

After  the  Dorian  migration,  no  changes  of  abode  occurred 
among  the  tribes  of  Greece.  The  Greeks  continued  to  be 
one  people,  divided  into  separate  communities,  regarding 
themselves  as  of  common  origin,  and  totally  distinct  from 
all  other  peoples,  whom  they  called  Barbarians*  The 
main  supports  of  their  nationality  were,  language,  religion, 
and  common  institutions. 

Like  the  modern  Italians,  the  Greeks  spoke  different 
dialects  of  one  language :  the  difference,  however,  was  not 
such  as  to  throw  much  difficulty  in  the  way  of  communi- 
cation ;  and  a  Dorian  and  an  Ionian  could  perhaps  converse 
together  with  more  ease  than  a  Venetian  and  a  Neapolitan. 
The  epic  poetry  of  the  lonians  was  sung  all  through  Greece; 
the  ^Eolian  lyrics  were  every  where  listened  to  with  delight, 
and  a  mingled  audience  could  enjoy  the  stately  drama  of 
Athens. 

The  same  deities  claimed  the  belief  and  worship  of  all 
Greece,  though  some  were  adored  more  in  one,  some  in 
another  state.  The  temples  of  Delphi,  Delos,  and  Olym- 
pia,  were  repaired  to  from  all  parts,  and  all  Hellas  sought 


*  This  word  originally  designated  those  whose  language  was  not 
Greek. 


24  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

oracular  responses  from  Olympia,  Delphi,  and  the  ancient 
oracle  of  Dodona  in  Epirus.  At  Olympia,  Delphi,  the 
Isthmus,  and  Nemea,  games  were,  at  different  intervals  of 
times,  celebrated  in  honor  of  the  gods  ;  and  in  the  gymnic 
and  other  exercises  at  these  games,  none  but  persons  of 
true  Hellenic  descent  were  permitted  to  contend.  People 
resorted  from  all  parts  of  Greece  to  witness  these  games, 
which  thus  tended  strongly  to  uphold  the  unity  of  the 
nation. 

Associations,  named  Amphictyonies,  seem  also,  from  very 
early  times,  to  have  kept  up  union  among  various  portions 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Greece.  They  are  said  to  have  been 
instituted  by  Amphictyon,  the  son  of  Deucalion  ;  but  it  is 
far  more  probable  that,  as  the  word  denotes,  they  were 
so  named  from  their  consisting  of  the  tribes  which  dwelt 
round  some  temple  at  which  they  worshipped,  and  which 
they  supported  in  common.*  There  were  several  of  these 
Amphictyonies ;  but  by  far  the  most  celebrated  is  that  which 
had  charge  of  the  temple  of  Apollo,  at  Delphi,  and  of  which 
most  of  the  leading  states  of  Greece  were  members.  This 
assembly  met  twice  a  year,  in  spring  and  autumn,  at  Pylae 
and  Delphi,  and  was  composed  of  deputies  from  the  different 
states  belonging  to  it.  It  regulated  all  things  relative  to  the 
temple,  and  decided  on  some  political  matters  of  common 
interest.  The  number  of  peoples  composing  this  Amphic- 
tyony  was  twelve,  namely,  the  Thessalians,  Boeotians,  Dori- 
ans, Ionians,  Perrhaebians,  Magnetes,  Locrians,  CEtaeans, 
Phthiotic  Achaeans,  Melians,  Phocians,  Delphians. 

*  There  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  the  proper  orthography  is 
ipipixritav,  (from  aiupl,  round,  and  ktiw,  to  dwell,)  and  not  an<pixrvon>, 
(from  an  imaginary  personage.) 


THE    COLONIES.  25 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    COLONIES. 

The  Dorian  migration  was  the  event  which  scattered 
Grecian  colonies  over  the  coasts  of  the  iEgean,  and  eventu- 
ally over  those  of  the  Mediterranean  and  Euxine  Seas.  As 
they  commenced  at  the  time  of  the  migration,  the  present  is, 
perhaps,  the  most  suitable  place  for  giving  an  account  of 
these  foreign  settlements  of  the  Greeks. 

Various  circumstances  will  conquer  the  natural  love  of 
the  land  of  his  birth  in  the  heart  of  man.  As  in  the  pres- 
ent case,  proud  and  high-spirited  men,  who  have  been 
overcome,  and  have  lost  their  lands  to  invaders,  will  gladly, 
rather  than  become  the  subjects  of  the  conquerors,  try 
their  fortune  in  distant  regions,  where  their  swords  may 
win  them  possessions  equal  to  those  they  had  lost.  Other 
colonies  are  indebted  for  their  origin  to  the  spirit  of  civil 
discord,  in  which  a  beaten  or  a  discontented  faction  re- 
solves to  quit  home,  rather  than  remain  witnesses  of  the 
triumph  and  the  insolence  of  their  rivals ;  such  was  the  ori- 
gin of  some  of  the  later  Grecian  colonies.  Commercial 
advantages  have  led  to  the  formation  of  numerous  colonies 
at  all  times ;  such  were  the  Grecian  colonies  in  the  Euxine, 
those  of  the  Phoenicians,  and  several  in  modern  times. 
The  maintenance  of  dominion  over  a  conquered  country  is 
also  a  cause  of  colonization  :  the  Roman  colonies  are  in- 
stances, as  also  are  the  Latin  colonies  in  Syria  at  the  time 
of  the  Crusades,  and  in  some  measure  those  of  the  Spaniards 
in  America.  This  last  motive  is,  however,  usually  united 
with  a  commercial  one. 

The  difficulty,  however,  of  procuring  the  necessaries 
and  the  comforts  of  life  at  home,  caused  by  the  increase 
of  population,  is  the  main  motive  with  men  to  abandon  their 
native  land.  They  feel  every  day  the  pressure  of  want  ; 
and  as  hope  spreads  illusive  hues  over  the  distant  regions 
3  d 


26  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

which  invite  them,  the  toils  and  dangers  to  be  undergone 
are  unheeded. 

So  it  was  in  Greece  at  a  later  period  than  that  of  which 
we  treat  at  present ;  and  when  the  power  of  colonizing  had 
in  a  great  measure  ceased,  we  shall  find  the  excess  of  popu- 
lation manifesting  itself  in  the  bands  of  Grecian  mercenary 
soldiers,  and  in  the  barbarous  practice  of  exposing  new-born 
babes.* 

We  are  now  to  take  a  view  of  the  Grecian  colonies  on 
the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  and  the  colonies  which  proceeded 
from  them. 

The  Achasans,  when  vanquished  by  the  Dorians,  submitted 
in  part  to  the  conquerors.  A  portion  of  them  threw  them- 
selves on  the  ^Egialeia,  or  southern  coast  of  the  Corinthian 
Gulf,  which  was  occupied  by  a  kindred  tribe,  as  it  would 
appear,  named  the  Ionians.  In  a  battle  which  took  place, 
the  Ionians  were  defeated ;  and  as,  according  to  the  rules 
of  war  in  those  times,  they  thereby  lost  their  lands,  they 
abandoned  their  country  and  retired  to  Attica,  whose  in- 
habitants were  of  the  same  race  with  themselves.  The 
Achaeans  remained  masters  of  the  country,  which  took  from 
them  the  name  of  Achaia ;  and  a  long  period  will  elapse 
before  we  meet  them  treading  the  political  stage  as  actors 
of  importance. 

Another  portion  of  the  defeated  Achseans  wandered 
farther  in  quest  of  settlements.  They  are  said  to  have 
departed  under  the  guidance  of  Penthilus,  a  younger  son 
of  Orestes,  and  to  have  made  their  first  stay  in  Eubcea. 
Thence  proceeding  northwards,  they  made  trial  of  the 
coast  of  Thrace ;  and  finally  crossing  the  Hellespont,  took 
possession  of  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  from  the  isle  of 
Cyzicus,  in  the  Propontis,  to  the  river  Hermus,  the  former 
realm  of  the  Trojan  monarchs,  whose  power  their  fathers 

*  There  is  no  allusion  to  this  practice  in  the  Homeric  poems.  The 
instances  of  it  in  the  mythic  legends  are  never  ascribed  to  the  poverty 
of  the  parents.  China,  the  most  densely  peopled  country,  is  the  only 
one,  we  believe,  in  which  it  prevails  at  present. 


THE    COLONIES.  27 

had  overturned.  They  also  occupied  the  isles  of  Tenedos 
and  Lesbos.  The  number  of  their  towns  on  the  main  land 
was  twelve,  of  which  the  best  known  are  Cyme  and 
Smyrna.  These  colonists  were  named  ^Eolians,  as  they 
spoke  the  MoYic  dialect  of  the  Greek  language.*  The 
twelve  ^Eolian  towns,  it  is  said,  —  but  the  fact  is  doubtful,  — 
celebrated,  as  a  bond  of  union,  a  common  festival  to  Apollo 
in  the  grove  of  Gryneion,  near  Myrina. 

The  Ionians,  who  had  retired  to  Attica,  finding,  in  the 
course  of  half  a  century,  a  want  of  room  and  occupation 
in  that  light  land,  resolved  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
^Eolians,  and  pass  over  to  Asia.  Accordingly,  uniting 
with  Bceotians  and  others  who  were  desirous  of  change, 
they  crossed  the  sea,  and  attacking  the  Leleges  and  Carians, 
who  dwelt  south  of  the  Hermus,  made  themselves  masters 
of  the  coast  from  the  mouth  of  that  river  to  Cape  Poseidion. 
They  divided  themselves,  as  in  their  original  country,  into 
twelve  towns;  namely,  Phocaea,  Clazomenae,  Erythrae,  Teos, 
Colophon,  Ephesus,  Priene,  Myus,  Lebedus,  Miletus,  and 
Chios  and  Samos,  in  the  isles  of  the  same  name.  The 
leaders  of  the  colonists  are  said  to  have  been  for  the  most 
part  Neleids,  or  princes  of  the  royal  house  of  Pylos  in  Pel- 
oponnesus, who  had  retired  from  thence  to  Attica  before 
the  Dorians  ;  and  traces  of  the  royal  dignity  long  remained 
among  the  Ionians.  The  Ionian  cities  had  a  common  fes- 
tival, named  Panionia,  which  served  as  a  bond  of  union 
among  them.  It  was  celebrated  in  honor  of  the  Helico- 
nian t  Poseidon,  at  a  place  named  Panionion,  on  the  wooded 
promontory  of  Mycale,  opposite  Samos. 

About  the  same  time  that  the  Ionians  passed  over  to  Asia, 
the  Dorians  of  Argos,  Epidaurus,  and  Troezen,  in  conse- 
quence of  dissension,  or  from  want  of  room,  or  urged  by 

*  The  greater  number  of  them,  then,  must  have  been  Boeotians,  as 
this  was  their  dialect.  Boeotians,  therefore,  are  said  to  have  joined 
the  Achseans ;  it  is  more  simple,  however,  to  suppose  that  iEolis  was 
colonized  from  Bceotia  alone. 

t  So  named  from  Helice  in  Achaia. 


28  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

their  adventurous  spirit,  crossed  the  sea  also,  and  made 
themselves  masters  of  the  isles  of  Rhodes  and  Cos,  and 
founded  on  the  main  land  Cnidos  and  Halicarnassus.  The 
three  cities  of  Rhodes,  Lindus,  Jalysus,  and  Cameirus,  with 
Cos,  Cnidos,  and  Halicarnassus,  formed  what  was  named 
the  Dorian  Hexapolis,  (Six-towns ;)  and  they  kept  a  common 
festival  to  their  national  god  Apollo  on  the  Triopian  prom- 
ontory. The  Dorians  also  settled  on  some  of  the  Sporades, 
and  on  the  isles  between  Crete  and  Rhodes. 

Thus,  within  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  after  the  sup- 
posed date  of  the  capture  of  Troy,  the  Grecian  colonies 
occupied  the  coast  of  Asia,  from  the  Hellespont  to  the 
borders  of  Lycia,  a  length  of  nearly  three  hundred  English 
miles.  It  is  interesting  to  inquire  how  they  were  enabled  to 
obtain  possession  of  so  much  territory. 

We  may  suppose  that  the  overthrow  of  the  Trojan  power 
left  the  region  to  which  the  ^Eolians  came  in  a  very  feeble 
condition,  so  that  probably  no  effectual  opposition  could  be 
made  to  the  settlement  of  the  martial  colonists  when  they 
landed.  We  have  no  information  of  the  manner  in  which 
they  acquired  possession  of  the  country  ;  most  probably  it 
was  by  treaty.  The  Ionians  would  seem  to  have  gained 
their  settlements  by  the  sword  from  the  Carians  and  Lele- 
ges,  for  we  are  told  *  that  having  brought  no  women  with 
them  from  Attica,  they  took  to  wife  the  Carian  women 
whose  fathers  and  husbands  they  had  slain.  As  these  Ca- 
rians and  Leleges  seem  to  have  formed  separate  indepen- 
dent communities,  without  any  firm  bond  of  union  among 
them,  it  was  easy  for  the  Ionians,  by  attacking  them  sepa- 
rately, to  subdue  them  one  after  the  other ;  for  in  such  a 
state  of  society  men  are  singularly  negligent  of  the  ap- 
proach of  danger,  and  will  stand   calmly  looking  on,  and 

*  Herod,  i.  146.  The  historian  says,  that  on  this  account  the  Ionian 
women  never  ate  with  their  husbands,  or  called  them  by  their  names, 
the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  murdered  Carians  having  bound  them- 
selves by  oath  not  to  do  so,  and  transmitted  the  obligation  to  their 
daughters.     The  tale  was  perhaps  invented  to  account  for  the  custom. 


THE    COLONIES.  29 

perhaps  rejoicing  at  the  misfortunes  of  their  neighbors,  not 
perceiving  that  their  own  turn  will  probably  come  next.  As 
to  the  interior  of  the  country,  there  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  at  that  time  any  state  of  magnitude  in  it,  and  the  various 
tribes  which  dwelt  there  may  have  been  indifferent  as  to  who 
possessed  the  coast,  or  even  to  have  been  pleased  with  the 
arrival  of  the  strangers,  who,  we  know  not  from  what  cause, 
seem  to  have  been  more  devoted  to  the  arts  of  peace  than  to 
those  of  war. 

During  a  long  series  of  years,  the  causes  of  colonization 
continued  to  operate.  The  coasts  of  Macedonia  and  Thrace 
on  the  iEgean  were  occupied  by  Grecian  settlements;  the 
Ionians  of  Miletus  sent  colonists  to  the  Propontis,  then 
entered  the  Euxine,  and  made  settlements  for  the  sake  of 
commerce  along  the  coasts  of  Asia,  Colchis,  and  Scythia. 
On  the  west,  Sicily  and  the  south  coast  of  Italy  were  filled 
with  Grecian  colonies,  chiefly  Dorian.  In  the  south,  the 
Isle  of  Cyprus  became  Grecian;  the  jealous  Egyptians 
allowed  Greeks  to  settle  in  their  land,  and  a  flourishing 
Grecian  state  was  established  at  Cyrene,  on  the  coast  of 
Libya.  The  Phocaeans  of  Ionia,  finally,  as  we  shall  see 
hereafter,  effected  a  settlement  on  the  south  coast  of  France, 
the  origin  of  the  modern  city  of  Marseilles. 

The  relation  between  a  Greek  colony,  founded  for  the 
sake  of  trade,  or  for  disburdening  the  mother  country,  and 
the  parent  state,  appears  in  a  very  pleasing  light.  The  col- 
onists took  with  them  a  portion  of  the  sacred  fire  which 
burned  in  the  Prytaneion  or  council-hall  of  their  native  city ; 
they  invited  the  tutelar  deities  of  the  state  to  accept  abodes 
in  the  new  country  to  which  they  were  going,  and  erected 
for  them  there  temples  and  altars  similar  to  those  at  home. 
Deputies  regularly  repaired  from  the  colonies  with  offerings 
to  the  religious  festivals  of  the  mother  city;  and  its  citizens, 
when  they  appeared  at  those  of  the  colonies,  were  treated 
with  the  utmost  respect  and  consideration.  Finally,  if  the 
new  state  was  becoming  a  colonizer  in  its  turn,  it  always 
3* 


30  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

fetched  the  leader  (&QXVYVT*ls)  °f  the  colony  from  the  ori- 
ginal mother  country.  In  times  of  war  or  distress,  the  parent 
state  and  its  colonies  mutually  aided  each  other. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE  SPARTAN  CONSTITUTION. LYCURGUS. 

The  uncertainty  of  tradition,  and  the  want  of  contempo- 
rary written  history,  make  all  inquiries  relating  to  these 
early  ages  of  Greece  extremely  fluctuating  and  uncertain. 
We  thus  find  it  impossible  to  say  positively  in  what  manner, 
and  in  what  space  of  time,  the  Dorian  dominion  was  estab- 
lished in  Peloponnesus,  and  what  was  its  nature ;  and  anal- 
ogy and  the  view  of  the  institutions  existing  in  the  historic 
times  will  perhaps  be  safer  guides  than  the  assertions  of  late 
historians. 

The  most  complete  parallel  which  history  presents  to 
the  Dorian  conquest  of  Peloponnesus,  is  that  of  England 
by  the  Normans.*  Admitting  the  truth  in  the  main  features 
of  the  mythic  account  of  the  former,  the  invaders,  in  each 
case  about  equal  in  number,  were  led  by  princes  who  as- 
serted a  legal  claim  to  the  invaded  country ;  the  invasion  in 
either  case  was  by  sea ;  one  great  battle  proved  decisive, 
but  the  conquest  was  gradual,  and  a  portion  of  the  van- 
quished people  migrated.  In  the  Norman  conquest,  the 
original  inhabitants  were  treated  at  first  with  mildness;  but 
as  the  power  of  the  victors  became  consolidated,  their  use 
of  the  rights  of  conquest,  as  they  are  styled,  became  more 
oppressive  and  unjust.  The  same  was  probably  the  case  in 
Laconia,  to  which  we  now  confine  ourselves. 

*  This,  we  believe,  was  first  observed  by  Dr.  Arnold.  See  his 
Thucydides,  i.  650. 


THE    SPARTAN    CONSTITUTION.  31 

According  to  the  historian  Ephorus,  the  Dorians  won  the 
whole  land  at  once,  which  they  divided  into  six  districts, 
one  of  which,  Sparta,  they  kept  for  themselves ;  Amyclae 
they  gave  to  the  Achaean  Philonomus,  who  had  betrayed 
the  country  to  them,  and  over  the  other  four  they  set 
viceroys.  This,  however,  is  only  the  assertion  of  a  histo- 
rian not  of  the  highest  character  for  judgment  and  accu- 
racy; and  against  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  there  is  very 
probable  evidence  that  Amyclae,  a  strong  town,  only  twenty 
stadia  from  Sparta,  maintained  its  independence,  to  a  certain 
extent,  till  near  the  time  of  Lycurgus,  and  that,  in  the  nar- 
ratives of  late  historians,  gradual  conquests  are  frequently 
resolved  into  one  decisive  victory.* 

When  we  consider  the  small  number  of  the  invading 
Dorians,  it  may  appear  the  most  probable  supposition  that 
in  Laconia,  Argos,  and  Messene,  they  contented  themselves 
at  first  with  a  moderate  portion  of  the  territory,  the  prop- 
erty, perhaps,  of  those  Achaeans  who  had  retired  to  ^Egialeia 
and  elsewhere.  Thus  we  find  the  Dorians  in  Argos,  in  the 
plain  about  that  city,  which  must  have  been  the  first  they 
entered  on  when  coming  from  Arcadia ;  those  of  Messene 
in  the  Stenyclarian  plain,  also  next  to  Arcadia;  and  those 
of  Laconia  at  Sparta,  and  the  parts  nearest  to  Arcadia.  In 
the  course  of  time,  as  their  numbers  and  strength  increased, 
they  extended  their  dominion. 

The  Achaeans  of  Laconia  were  called  Lacedaemonians  t 
(as  distinguished  from  the  Dorians,  who  were  named  Spar- 
tans, ^TTccgnrirat)  and  Perioecians  (//eoi'oixot,  Dwellers-round, 
—  as  Sparta  being  regarded  as  the  centre,  their  towns  lay 


*  Sir  James  Mackintosh  is,  we  believe,  the  first  English  historian 
who  has  drawn  attention  to  the  fact,  that  the  Norman  conquest  of 
England  was  gradual.  The  best  account  of  it  will  be  found  in  M. 
Thierry's  Histoire  de  la  ConquHe  de  VAngleterre  par  les  Normands. 
The  English  conquest  of  Ireland  also  presents  some  strong  points 
of  resemblance  to  that  of  the  Dorians. 

t  The  historians,  however,  employ  this  name  for  all  the  free  inhabit- 
ants of  Laconia,  the  Spartans  included. 


32  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

in  the  circumference  of  the  territory).  They  paid  the 
state  a  tribute  —  apparently  a  very  moderate  one  —  for  the 
lands  which  they  possessed.  All  the  arts  which  were  exer- 
cised in  Laconia  were  in  their  hands;  they  wrought  the 
iron-mines  of  Taygeton ;  the  Laconian  wares,  so  celebrated 
throughout  Greece,  such  as  drinking-vessels,  tables,  seats, 
carriages,  shoes,  cloaks,  swords,  helmets,  and  hardware  in 
general,  were  manufactured  by  them.  As  they  dwelt  in 
the  seaports,  all  the  foreign  trade  of  the  state  was  in  their 
possession.  Though  they  were  a  distinct  race  from  the 
Dorians,  with  whom  they  had  not  the  right  of  intermarriage, 
and  had  no  share  in  the  government  or  legislative  assem- 
blies, they  were  treated  by  them  with  consideration,  and 
their  Heavy-armed  (troops)  or  Hoplites  (ottXitcu)  always 
formed  a  portion  of  the  Lacedaemonian  line  of  battle.  They 
were  not  entitled  to  command  in  the  field ;  yet  when  Sparta 
began  to  be  a  naval  power,  the  command  at  sea  was  open  to 
them.  They  were  therefore  always  on  good  terms  with  the 
ruling  Dorians,  and  we  nowhere  read  of  insurrections  of  the 
Laconian  Pericecians. 

There  was  another  class  of  the  conquered  people,  whose 
lot  was  a  much  harder  one :  these  were  the  Helots  (Ei- 
Xwieg)  or  serfs.  The  common  story  is,  that  the  people  of 
the  town  of  Helos,  on  the  coast,  having  risen  in  rebellion 
against  their  Dorian  lords,  were,  when  overcome,  reduced 
to  serfship,  and  the  name  was  extended  to  all  who  after- 
wards came  into  the  same  condition.  This,  however,  is 
apparently  only  a  bad  piece  of  etymology ;  *  the  Helots 
were  more  probably  a  portion  of  the  Achacans,  who,  instead 
of  making  terms  like  the  others,  fought  for  and  lost  their 
liberty;  or,  supposing  that  the  Achaeans  had  originally  won 

*  To  derive  EiXwf  from"EXoc,  says  Mailer,  violates  all  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Greek  language.  The  root  is  most  probably  ?2co,  to  take, 
of  which  it  is  an  old  perfect  participle  taken  passively.  It  will  thus 
correspond  with  dp&f,  which  comes  from  dauuw.  On  the  other  hand, 
we  are  to  observe,  that  the  Argive  Pericecians  were  named  Orncates 
from  a  place  Orneae. 


THE    SPARTAN    CONSTITUTION.  33 

the  land  like  the  Dorians,  the  Helots  may  have  been  the 
descendants  of  the  former  inhabitants  whom  they  had  re- 
duced to  this  state,  and  who  now  only  made  a  change  of 
masters. 

The  condition  of  the  Helots  did  not  at  all  resemble  that 
of  the  slaves  at  Athens  and  Rome,  or  in  the  European 
colonies  in  America.  They  answer  much  more  nearly  to 
the  villains  *  of  the  middle  ages,  and  to  the  peasants  of 
Russia  at  the  present  day.  They  belong  to  the  state,  and 
not  to  individuals,  (differing  in  this  from  those  just  men- 
tioned ;)  and  those  who  had  the  use  of  them  as  servants, 
could  neither  sell  them  nor  give  them  their  freedom.  The 
Helots  dwelt  in  cottages  on  the  lots  (xATjoot)  or  portions  of 
land  of  the  Spartans,  and  from  each  they  yielded  the  owner 
every  year  eighty-two  medimns  or  bushels  of  barley,  and 
wine  and  oil  in  proportion  :  the  remaining  produce  was 
their  own,  and  hence  they  not  unfrequently  acquired  wealth. 
It  is  calculated  that  there  may  have  been  six  or  seven  Helot 
families  on  each  lot.  Both  the  public  and  private  servants 
were  Helots,  and  large  numbers  of  them  served  as  light 
troops  in  the  Spartan  armies,  and  also  on  board  their  ships; 
they  were  the  tutors  f  of  the  Spartan  boys,  and  Helot 
women  were  the  nurses  of  even  the  royal  families.  The 
way  was  open  to  them  to  freedom,  and  even  to  full  citizen- 
ship. Those  who  had  distinguished  themselves  in  the 
service  of  the  state,  particularly  in  war,  were,  under  the 
name  of  Neodamodes,  (New-people,)  made  free,  and  assigned 
a  piece  of  land  as  their  own  property  ;  and  their  number 
soon  equalled  that  of  the  Spartans.  There  was  another 
class  of  free  Helots,  named  Mothones,  £  (Mdduveg,)  or  Mo- 
thacs,  (Modaxeg,)  who  had  become  so  on  account  of  their 
having  been  reared  up  with  young  Spartans.      Their  de- 

*  Villani,  predial  servants  or  farm-laborers. 

t  Ilaidayojybg  does  not  answer  exactly  to  our  word  tutor.  The 
pedagogue  was  a  servant  who  had  charge  of  the  boys  of  a  family. 

X  Mo9wv  is  verna,  a  house-slave.  This  proves  that  the  Mothones 
were  not,  as  has  been  erroneously  supposed,  Pericecians. 

E 


34  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

scendants  acquired  full  citizenship,  for  some  of  the  most 
distinguished  Spartan  commanders  of  later  times,  such  as 
Lysander,  Callicratidas,  and  Gylippus,  were  such.* 

The  lot  of  the  Helots  was  doubtless  not  an  enviable  one ; 
and,  as  in  our  West  Indian  colonies,  there  must  have  been 
individual  cases  of  cruelty  and  injustice ;  but  such  could 
hardly  have  been  the  general  practice.  Late  writers,  in 
their  hostility  to  the  Spartans,  and  their  desire  to  produce 
effect,  describe  their  condition  with  a  ludicrous  degree  of 
sensibility.  Thus  we  are  told  f  that  they  were  obliged  to 
wear  dogskin  caps  and  sheepskin  jackets,  (the  ordinary 
dress,  by  the  way,  of  the  country-folk  in  Greece,)  and  to 
perform  the  meanest  offices ;  that  they  were  frequently 
beaten,  to  keep  them  in  mind  that  they  were  slaves;  and 
that  death  was  the  fate  of  any  Helot  who  was  distinguished 
for  size  and  beauty ;  nay,  his  master  was  punished  if  he 
did  not  slay  him.  Another  late  writer  |  adds,  that  as  a 
warning  to  the  Spartan  youth,  the  Helots  were  at  times 
forced  by  their  lords  to  get  drunk  and  perform  unseemly 
dances.  The  gross  exaggeration  of  all  this  is  apparent; 
we  have  surely  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Spartans 
were  worse  than  the  nobles  of  the  middle  ages,  and  we  find 
no  charges  of  this  nature  brought  against  these  as  a  body. 

There  is  some  difficulty  about  the  celebrated  Crypteia, 
(xgvrtTsla.)  We  are  told,  on  the  authority  of  Aristotle,  §  that 
the  Spartan  Ephors,  when  entering  into  office,  always  pro- 
claimed war  against  the  Helots,  in  order  that  it  might  be 
lawful  to  murder  them ;  and  that  annually  the  most  discreet 
of  the  Spartan  youth  were  sent  through  the  country  armed 
with  daggers ;  and  that  lying  in  wait  they  fell  on  and  slew, 
by  day  or  by  night,  such  of  the  Helots  as  came  in  their  way. 
On  the  other  hand,  Plato  ||  gives  a  very  different  view  of  the 

*  .Elian.  V.  H.  xii.  43. 

t  By  Myron,  the  romantic  historian  of  the  Messenian  wars.     (Athen. 
xiv.) 
X  Plutarch,  Lycurgus  28.  §   Ibid. 

H  Laws,  i.  §  7.  vi.  §  9.  (Bekk.) 


THE    SPARTAN    CONSTITUTION.  do 

Crypteia,  as  an  institution  for  teaching  the  youth  of  Sparta 
to  bear  hardship,  and  for  inspecting  the  state  of  the  country. 
Individual  cases  of  atrocity  may  have  given  origin  to  that 
darker  view  of  it  among  strangers ;  but  it  is  hardly  possible 
to  conceive  that  so  numerous  a  body  as  the  Helots  would 
not  have  stood  on  their  defence,  instead  of  letting  them- 
selves be  thus  annually  butchered.  Suppose,  for  illustra- 
tion, the  Jamaica  planters  to  have  instituted  a  Crypteia, — 
must  they  not  have  long  since  become  the  victims  of  their 
justly  irritated  slaves? 

We  now  come  to  the  dominant  class  in  Laconia,  the 
descendants  of  the  conquerors,  —  the  Spartans,  as  they 
were  named,  from  Sparta,  the  town  in  which  they  all  dwelt: 
the  camp,  perhaps  we  might  call  it,  for  the  Dorians  have  been 
justly  compared  to  "  an  army  of  occupation  in  a  conquered 
country."* 

The  Dorians  were  a  class  of  military  nobles,  owners  of 
land,  forbidden  to  exercise  any  trade  or  art,  enjoined  to 
practise  continually  military  exercises.  At  some  time, 
which  cannot  be  assigned  with  certainty,  the  Laconian  terri- 
tory had  been  divided  into  9000  large,  and  30,000  smaller 
lots ;  the  former,  which  were  about  two  thirds  of  the  whole 
land,  belonged  to  the  Spartans,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  were 
cultivated  for  them  by  the  Helots ;  the  latter  were  assigned 
to  the  Perioecians.  Freed  thus  from  the  necessity  of  even 
overseeing  their  lands,  the  Dorians  had  abundant  leisure  fox 
gymnastic  exercises,  and  for  thus  acquiring  the  high  mili- 
tary attainments  which  always  distinguished  them. 

A  certain  fixedness  and  adherence  to  ancient  manners 
and  customs  was  distinctive  of  the  Dorian  race.  Hence 
the  manners  of  the  heroic  age,  as  pourtrayed  by  Homer,  may 
very  frequently  be  discerned  among  them.  The  following 
are  some  of  the  most  remarkable  of  the  institutions  of 
Sparta. 

All   the  Spartan  men  ate  together  at  public  tables,  the 

*  Arnold,  Thucydides  i.  642. 


36  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

kings  not  excepted.  These  meals,  usually  named  Syssities, 
(owaata,)*  i.  e.  messes,  were  plain  and  simple.  Each 
member  contributed  monthly  a  certain  quantity  of  barley- 
meal,  wine,  cheese,  and  figs,  and  a  small  quantity  of  money 
to  purchase  opson.i  Fifteen  was  the  usual  number  of 
persons  in  each  syssity,  or  mess :  the  members  were  ad- 
mitted by  ballot,  in  this  manner.  The  attendant,  setting  a 
vessel  on  his  head,  went  round,  and  each  member  of  the 
mess  threw  into  it  a  bit  of  bread,  which  he  squeezed  in  his 
fingers  if  he  wished  to  vote  against  the  candidate.  Should 
there  be  found  in  the  vessel  even  one  such  piece,  the  can- 
didate was  rejected.  The  little  boys  sat  on  stools  at  their 
fathers'  feet,  and  got  their  share  of  the  food ;  the  elder  boys 
messed  in  a  similar  manner  to  that  of  the  grown  men. 

A  chief  part  of  the  opson  was  the  celebrated  blacK  broth 
(fiilag  tyfibg,)  which  by  all  accounts  was  a  very  unpalatable 
dish.  The  office  of  cook,  at  Sparta,  we  may  observe,  was 
hereditary  in  certain  families;  and  as  there  was  therefore 
no  competition,  there  was  no  improvement  in  cookery. 

The  Dorians  attached  great  importance  to  the  rearing 
and  educating  of  their  youth.  When  a  child  was  born,  it 
was  brought  to  the  elders  of  the  House  (ytvog,  gens)  to 
which  its  father  belonged,  by  whom  it  was  examined;  if 
found  strong  and  healthy,  it  was  directed  to  be  reared ;  if 
puny  or  deformed,  it  was  sent  away  and  cast  into  the 
caverns  of  Mount  Taygeton,  —  a  barbarous  practice,  no 
doubt,  but  one  useful  in  a  military  state.  Till  the  age  of 
seven,  the  boys  were  left  with  their  parents;  they  were  then, 
those  of  the  royal  houses  not  excepted,  placed  under  public 
instructors,  and  passed  through  various  classes,  till  they 
were  old  enough  to  be  admitted  among  the  men.  Their 
chief  occupations  were  gymnastics,  and  things  relating  to 
the  military  life,  to  which  every  Spartan  was  destined. 

The    Spartans,  being   of  opinion   that   only   strong   and 

*  The  Spartan  term  was  ipidlria,  or  ipiXina. 

t  The  opson  (oxpov)  was  flesh-meat  and  fish,  and  whatever  was  eaten 
with  bread. 


THE    SPARTAN    CONSTITUTION.  37 

healthy  women  could  bear  healthy  children,  were  equally 
solicitous  about  the  rearing  of  their  females.  They,  too, 
practised  gymnastics  like  the  youths,  and  in  their  presence. 
The  Spartan  women  were  famous  throughout  Greece  for 
their  beauty  and  their  virtue.  Love  was  felt  more  strongly 
and  purely  at  Sparta  than  elsewhere  in  Greece;  breach  of, 
chastity  was  nearly  unknown ;  the  married  woman  was  held 
in  honor  by  her  husband,  and  addressed  by  the  respectful 
title  of  Mistress,  (dlonoivaj) 

With  respect  to  the  constitution  and  government  of 
Sparta,  we  may  regard  it  in  one  sense  as  an  oligarchy,  in 
another  as  a  democracy,  fixing  our  view  on  the  Dorians 
alone.  It  most  resembled  regal  Rome  among  ancient, 
Venice  among  modern  states,*  but  its  chiefs  were  heredi- 
tary, and  not  elective. 

At  the  head  of  the  Spartan  government  stood  two  kings 
who  claimed  descent  from  Hercules,  through  Procles  and 
Eurysthenes,  the  sons  of  Aristodemus.f  Their  rank  and 
authority  were  therefore  founded  in  religion,  as  they  de- 
rived their  lineage  from  heaven.  They  alone  could  offer 
certain  sacrifices ;  they  named  the  persons  sent  to  consult 
the  Pythian  oracle ;  when  they  died,  all  the  people  of  the 
land,  Spartans,  Pericecians,  and  Helots,  repaired  to  Sparta  to 
mourn  the  monarch,  who  was  interred  with  magnificence. 
In  peace  the  kings  presided  in  the  senate,  in  war  they 
led  the  armies,  and  their  power  beyond  the  bounds  of  La- 
conia  was  unlimited.  The  Dorian  royalty  was  evidently  a 
continuation  of  that  of  the  Heroic  ages. 

The  Gerusia  (yegovala)  or  council  of  elders,  the  Dorian 
senate,  consisted  of  twenty-eight  men  of  sixty  years  or  up- 

*  For  it  was  an  oligarchy  with  respect  to  the  Pericecians,  a  democ- 
racy among  the  Dorians  themselves,  who  resembled  the  Roman  Patri- 
cians and  the  Venetian  Nobili. 

t  The  two  royal  families  were  named,  the  one  Agids,from  Agis,  the 
son  of  Eurysthenes  ;  the  other  Proclids,  from  Procles,  or  Eurypontids, 
from  his  grandson  Eurypon.  The  Agids  were  regarded  as  the  supe- 
rior house.     (Herod,  vi.  51 .) 

4 


38  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

wards,  elected  by  the  popular  assembly.  They  held  their 
office  for  life.  In  conjunction  with  the  kings,  they  delibe- 
rated on  all  public  affairs,  and  prepared  such  measures  as 
were  to  be  laid  before  the  people.  They  decided  as  judges 
in  all  criminal  matters,  and  could  punish  with  degrada- 
tion (urifila)  and  death ;  as  censors,  they  exercised  an  over- 
sight over  the  morals  of  the  citizens  in  general. 

The  people,  that  is,  the  Spartans  or  Dorians,  possessed  the 
legislative  power.  As  has  been  already  observed,  in  anti- 
quity the  different  races  had  favorite  political  numbers. 
The  Dorian  number  was  three,  and  accordingly  the  Spar- 
tans were  divided  into  three  tribes,  —  the  Hylleans,  the 
Dymans,  and  the  Pamphylans.*  Each  of  these  was  again 
divided  into  ten  Obes,  (w^ai,)  or  Phratries;  and  each  obe 
contained  a  certain  number  of  Houses,  [yifea,  gentes,)  each 
composed  of  a  certain  number  of  families. 

All  Spartans  who  had  attained  the  age  of  thirty  years, 
and  who  had  not  been  by  law  deprived  of  their  rights,  were 
authorized  to  appear  in  the  popular  assembly,  (eAXla})  which 
was  held  every  full  moon  in  the  open  air,  at  a  place  west- 
wards of  the  town,  between  the  brook  named  Knakion  and 
the  bridge  Babyca.  Here  they  decided  on  peace  and  war, 
and  other  questions  of  foreign  policy,  on  laws,  on  the  suc- 
cession to  the  throne,  on  changes  in  the  constitution ;  elect- 
ed magistrates,  etc. ;  exercising,  in  fact,  the  supreme  political 
and  legislative  power.  But  they  could  only  deliberate  on 
what  was  laid  before  them  by  the  government,  and  the  ma- 
gistrates alone  were  permitted  to  speak.  The  assembly 
might  accept  or  reject  a  proposed  measure,  but  could  make 
no  alteration  in  it. 

The  most  remarkable  magistracy  at  Sparta  was  the 
Ephory,  — ■  an  office  the  institution  of  which  was  by  some 
ascribed  to  Lycurgus,  by  others  to  King  Theopompus,  but 
which  seems  to  have  been  coeval  with  the  state,  though  with 
different  powers  at  different  times.     The  five  Ephors  ( Over- 

*  See  the  personifications  of  these  tribes  above,  pp.  19,  20. 


THE    SPARTAN    CONSTITUTION.  39 

seers)  appear  to  have  been  originally  the  magistrates  of  the 
five  villages  (x5,a«t)  which  composed  the  town  of  Sparta, 
and  appointed  to  decide  in  civil  matters  among  their  fellow- 
citizens.  In  their  enlarged  capacity,  they  were  a  popular 
magistracy  chosen  annually  by  the  people  out  of  themselves, 
without  any  qualification  of  wealth  or  age,  bearing  some 
resemblance  to  the  Tribunes  at  Rome,  and  becoming,  event- 
ually, in  power  like  the  formidable  Council  of  Ten  at 
Venice. 

The  Ephors  sat  every  day  in  their  court,  (&qxbTov})  in  the 
market  by  the  temple  of  Fear.  They  were  censors  of 
morals,  and  overseers  of  education ;  all  magistrates,  (the 
senators  excepted,)  and  even  the  kings,  were  obliged  to 
render  them  an  account  of  their  conduct  in  office,  and  they 
could  remove  them  and  punish  them  even  with  death  ;  they 
directed  the  police,  and  had  the  management  of  the  treasury; 
they  chiefly  conducted  the  foreign  relations  of  the  state, 
and  some  of  them  usually  accompanied  the  armies  sent  out 
of  the  country.  In  fine,  as  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
like  our  House  of  Commons,  they  possessed,  in  reality,  the 
supreme  power  in  the  state. 

Political  constitutions,  like  natural  ones,  are  usually  of 
gradual  growth ;  but  when  in  any  country  there  has  been, 
or  is  supposed  to  have  been,  some  eminent  legislator,  tra- 
dition is  apt  to  ascribe  to  him  singly  what  has  been  the 
work  of  many  persons  and  of  different  times.  Thus  Rome 
deduced  her  institutions  from  Numa  and  Servius ;  and  we 
ourselves  have  collected  around  the  person  of  Alfred  the 
most  valuable  institutions  of  our  Saxon  ancestors.  The 
Servius  or  Alfred  of  Sparta  was  Lycurgus. 

When  we  recollect  that  it  was  long  before  the  Greeks, 
though  acquainted  with  letters,  began  to  write,  and  that 
Lycurgus,  by  the  testimony  of  tradition,  is  placed  more  than 
three  centuries  before  that  time,  we  may  see  at  once  that 
his  history  must  be  purely  a  traditional,  and  in  some  sort  a 
mythic  one.  We  know  how  tradition  loves  to  magnify  its 
heroes,  and  to  invent  adventures  to  give  interest  to  their 


40  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

story.     Premising  therefore  these  cautions,  we  proceed  to 
relate  the  history  of  the  lawgiver  of  Sparta.* 

Lycurgus  was  the  younger  son  of  King  Eunomus,  {Good- 
law,)  or  Prytanis,  [Presiding.)  His  elder  brother  Polydectes 
dying  without  children,  Lycurgus  succeeded;  but  it  ap- 
pearing that  the  widow  was  pregnant,  he  declared  that  the 
royalty  belonged  to  the  child  if  it  should  be  a  boy,  and  that 
he  would  only  act  as  guardian.  The  queen  sent  secretly 
to  him,  offering  to  destroy  the  child  if  he  would  marry  her. 
Lycurgus  feigned  assent,  and  required  her  to  let  the  babe 
be  born,  and  he  would  then  dispose  of  it.  When  her  de- 
livery was  at  hand,  he  placed  trusty  persons  about  her,  with 
directions,  if  the  child  should  prove  a  male,  to  bring  it  to  him, 
wherever  he  should  be.  He  was  sitting  at  supper  with  the 
magistrates  when  the  new-born  babe  was  brought  to  him. 
He  took  him,  and,  saying,  "  Spartans,  a  king  is  born  unto 
us ! "  laid  him  in  the  royal  seat,  and  named  him  Charilaus, 
(People' s-joy,)  to  commemorate  the  joy  that  was  exhibited' 
at  his  own  moderation  and  justice. 

Some  time  after,  finding  the  queen's  family  and  others 
united  in  opposition  to  him,  Lycurgus  resolved  to  leave 
Sparta  and  visit  foreign  countries.  He  first  went  to  Crete, 
and  there  studied  the  Dorian  constitution  in  its  greatest 
purity ;  and  he  sent  to  Sparta  the  lyric  poet  Thales,  whom 
he  met  there,  that  his  songs  might  prepare  the  way  for  the 
legislation  he  meditated.  He  thence  proceeded  to  Ionia,  to 
study  other  men  and  other  manners.  Here  he  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  poems  of  Homer,  of  which  he  took 
copies.  He  is  said  to  have  extended  his  travels  to  Egypt  ; 
nay,  one  Spartan  writer  sends  him  to  Libya,  Iberia,  and 
India ! 

Meantime  Lycurgus  was  greatly  missed  at  home,  and  re- 
peated messages  were  sent  desiring  his  return,  for  all  was 
in  confusion,  the  royal  power  being  such  only  in  name.  He 
came  to  Sparta  determined  to  re-model  the  entire  state.     His 

*  Herod,  i.  65.    Plutarch,  Lycurgus. 


LYCURGUS.  41 

first  care  was  to  go  to  Delphi  and  consult  the  oracle,  where 
the  Pythia,  or  inspired  priestess,  on  seeing  him,  pronounced 
him  a  god  rather  than  a  man,  and  declared  the  god's  ap- 
proval of  his  meditated  changes.  Returning  home,  he  com- 
municated his  plans  to  the  principal  people,  and  secured 
their  aid.  He  then  caused  thirty  of  them  to  enter  the  mar- 
ket (uyogu)  one  morning  in  arms,  to  check  the  opposers  of 
his  views.  A  slight  tumult  ensued,  and  King  Charilaus  in 
terror  fled  to  the  temple  of  Athena  Chalcioecos  (Brass- 
house  *)  for  safety :  he  was,  however,  easily  induced  to 
come  forth  and  sanction  the  measures  of  reform. 

Lycurgus's  first  measure  was  the  institution  of  the  Ge- 
rusia,  or  senate.  Then,  having  observed  the  excessive  dis- 
proportion of  landed  property,  and  the  consequent  evils  to 
the  state  of  the  extremes  of  wealth  and  poverty,  he  pre- 
vailed on  the  wealthy  to  surrender  their  lands,  which  he  di- 
vided into  thirty  thousand  lots  for  the  Perioecians,  and  nine 
thousand  for  the  Spartans.  Next  he  prohibited  the  use  of 
gold  and  silver  money,  and  introduced  a  heavy  coinage  of 
iron,  tempered  in  vinegar,  so  as  to  be  of  no  value.  His  ob- 
ject in  this  was  to  banish  foreign  trade,  and  all  the  ministers 
and  incentives  of  luxury.  Proceeding  a  step  further,  he  in- 
stituted the  Syssities,  and  then  established  the  regulations 
regarding  marriage,  and  the  rearing  and  educating  of  chil- 
dren, and  the  discipline  of  youth.  The  Crypteia  is  also  as- 
cribed to  him. 

Having  completed  the  constitution,  and  seen  it  for  some 
time  in  operation,  he  meditated  to  give  it  the  utmost  sta- 
bility. He  therefore  assembled  the  kings,  the  senate,  and 
the  people,  and  telling  them  that  he  had  some  measure  of 
still  greater  importance  to  bring  forward,  but  would  not  do 
so  till  he  had  consulted  the  god,  he  required  from  them  an 
oath  that  they  would  make  no  change  before  his  return 
from  Delphi.     They  readily  took  the  oath.     He  then  re- 


*  So  named  as  being  lined  with  brass  plates,  like  the  ancient  treasu- 
ries at  Mycense  and  elsewhere. 

4*  w 


42  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

paired  to  the  oracle,  and,  when  he  had  sacrificed  and  inquired, 
the  god  replied  that  his  laws  were  excellent,  and  Sparta 
would  be  most  glorious  while  she  followed  them.  This  re- 
sponse he  sent  home,  resolving  never  to  return  and  release 
the  Spartans  from  their  oath.  He  died  in  Crete,  or  Elis,  or 
Cirrha,  and  in  after  times  the  Spartans  raised  a  temple  to 
him  as  a  god. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


THE    MESSENIAN    WARS. 


The  early  history  of  the  Dorians  in  Messene  is  as  obscure 
as  that  of  their  brethren  in  Laconia,  and  for  the  same  rea- 
son,— the  want  of  letters.  It  would  appear  that  they  coa- 
lesced more  with  the  people  of  the  land  ;  and,  to  judge  by 
the  names  of  their  kings  which  have  been  transmitted  to 
us,  their  character  was  more  gentle  and  rural  than  that  of 
the  contemporary  kings  of  Sparta.* 

The  Dorians  established  themselves  chiefly  in  the  plain  of 
Stenyclaros,  bordering  on  Arcadia,  to  a  daughter  of  one  of 
whose  princes,  named  Cypselus,  Cresphontes  was  married. 
Cresphontes,  it  is  said,  being  disposed  to  favor  the  people, 
(i.  e.  the  Achaeans,)  was,  with  his  sons,  put  to  death  by  his 
Dorian  subjects ;  but  iEpytus,  his  youngest  son,  happening 
to  be  with  his  grandfather  in  Arcadia,  escaped,  and  when  he 
grew  up,  he  was  brought  back  to  Messene  by  the  Arcadians, 
and  by  the  Dorians  of  Laconia  and  Argos,  and,  having  re- 
covered the  throne,  he  took  vengeance  on  the  murderers  of 
his  father.  iEpytus  became  so  famous  that  the  royal  family 
were  named  from  him  the  ^Epytids. 

About  three  centuries  and  a  half  had  elapsed  since  the 

*  Paus.  iv.  3,  4. 


THE    MESSENIAN    WARS.  43 

Dorian  conquest,  when  feud  and  enmity  broke  out  between 
the  Dorians  of  Laconia  and  of  Messene.  The  most  probable 
cause  is,  that  the  Spartans,  having  now  fully  reduced  the 
Achaeans  of  Laconia,  began  to  cast  a  longing  eye  on  the  fer- 
tile plains  of  Messene  :  the  first  occasions  of  enmity  are  thus 
transmitted  to  us.* 

On  the  confines  of  Laconia  and  Messene  was  a  temple 
of  Artemis  Limnatis  ( Of-the-Lake)  common  to  the  two  na- 
tions. Hither,  when  the  Spartan  maidens  repaired  one  time 
to  keep  the  festival,  they  were  violated  by  some  young 
Messenians.  The  Spartan  king,  Teleclus,  attempting  to  de- 
fend them,  was  slain ;  and  the  maidens,  unable  to  bear  dis- 
grace, put  an  end  to  themselves.  So  said  the  Spartans. 
The  Messenian  account  was,  that  when  several  of  their 
principal  men  had  visited  the  temple,  Teleclus  sent  to  them 
some  beardless  youths,  disguised  as  maidens,  and  armed 
with  daggers,  hoping,  by  removing  them,  to  conquer  the 
country  more  easily.  The  Messenians,  discovering  his  de- 
sign, slew  both  himself  and  the  youths ;  and  the  Spartans 
were  so  conscious  of  being  in  the  wrong,  that  they  sought 
no  satisfaction  for  the  murder  of  Teleclus. 

Nothing  further  occurred  at  this  time.  In  the  next  gen- 
eration a  new  cause  of  enmity  arose.  A  wealthy  Messenian, 
named  Polychares,  sent  some  of  his  kine  to  graze  on  the 
lands  of  a  Spartan  named  Euaephnus.  The  Spartan  was 
to  have  a  share  of  the  produce  of  the  cows;  but,  not  content 
with  this,  he  secretly  sold  them  to  some  foreign  traders,  and 
then,  coming  to  Polychares,  told  him  that  pirates  had  landed, 
and  carried  oif  both  herds  and  herdsmen.  Just  then  one 
of  Polychares'  slaves,  whom  Euaephnus  had  sold  with  the 
cattle,  having  made  his  escape,  came  and  told  the  truth  ; 
and  Euaephnus,  being  thus  convicted,  implored  forgiveness, 
and  offered  to  pay  the  full  value  of  the  cattle  if  Polychares' 
son  would  accompany  him  home.  The  youth  set  out  with 
him ;  but,  as  soon   as  they  were  on  Laconian  ground,  the 

*  Pans.  iv.  4 — 24. 


44  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

treacherous  Spartan  fell  on  and  slew  him.  Polychares, 
having  vainly  sought  justice  at  Sparta,  became  desperate, 
and  he  put  to  death  every  Spartan  that  fell  into  his  hands. 

The  Spartans  now  sent  an  embassy,  demanding  the  sur- 
render of  Polychares.  The  two  kings  of  Messene,  Andro- 
cles  and  Antiochus,  were  of  opposite  opinions,  the  former 
wishing  to  comply  with,  the  latter  to  reject,  the  demand 
of  the  Spartans.  It  came  to  blows,  and  Androcles  and  his 
principal  friends  fell  in  the  civil  conflict ;  Antiochus  sent 
to  Sparta,  offering  to  submit  the  matter  to  the  judgment 
of  the  Argives,  their  common  kinsmen,  or  to  the  court  of 
Areiopagus  at  Athens.  The  Spartans  made  no  reply.  An- 
tiochus died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Euphaes ;  and 
then  the  Spartans,  without  any  declaration  of  war,  having 
secretly  bound  themselves  by  oath  never  to  rest  till  they  were 
masters  of  Messene,  made  an  irruption  by  night  into  that 
country,  and  surprised  the  town  of  Amphia,  which  was  situa- 
ted on  a  lofty  hill  near  the  borders.  All  the  inhabitants  were 
put  to  the  sword,  a  few  only  escaping. 

King  Euphaes,  having  summoned  an  assembly  of  the  peo- 
ple to  Stenyclaros,  advised  them  not  to  be  cast  down,  and 
exhorted  them  to  apply  diligently  to  the  practice  of  arms, 
and,  relying  on  the  gods  and  the  justice  of  their  cause,  to  pre- 
pare for  the  war.  Three  years  passed  away  in  preparation, 
during  which  the  Spartans  plundered,  but  did  not  injure,  the 
land  which  they  hoped  would  be  theirs ;  and  the  Messenians 
made  descents  on  the  coast  of  Laconia,  and  ravaged  the 
cornfields  on  Mount  Taygeton.  At  length,  when  Euphaes 
thought  his  people  sufficiently  prepared,  he  summoned  them 
to  his  standard,  and  led  them  against  the  Spartans,  followed 
by  a  number  of  servants  carrying  timber  and  all  things 
necessary  for  the  construction  of  a  rampart.  The  armies 
met  in  a  plain  where  there  was  a  deep  gulf  in  the  earth : 
the  heavy-armed  stood  separated  by  it,  while  the  horse  and 
the  light-armed  engaged  each  other  above  it.  Meantime  the 
servants  raised  a  rampart  round  the  rear  and  flanks  of  the 
Messenians,  and  during  the  night  they  completed  it  in  front; 


THE    MESSENIAN    WARS.  45 

the  Spartans>  seeing  their  enemies  thus  secured,  deemed  it 
not  prudent  to  remain,  and  retired  home. 

The  following  year,  the  Spartans,  shamed  by  the  re- 
proaches of  their  old  men,  invaded  Messene,  and  a  battle 
was  fought,  which  was  terminated  by  night,  victory  remain- 
ing with  neither  side.  The  Messenians,  however,  soon 
found  that  they  were  losers,  on  the  whole,  as  they  had  spent 
all  their  money,  their  slaves  had  deserted  in  great  numbers 
to  the  enemy,  and  a  contagious  disease  had  broken  out  in 
the  country.  They  therefore  resolved  to  abandon  all  their 
towns  in  the  plain,  and  betake  them  to  the  nearly  impregna- 
ble hill  of  Ithome,  which  stands  detached  on  the  confines  of 
the  Stenyclarian  plain,  and  there  to  make  their  stand. 
When  this  was  done,  they  sent  to  consult  the  god  at  Delphi. 

The  Messenian  envoy,  (deojgbg,)  whose  name  was  Tisis,  was 
waylaid,  on  his  return,  by  the  Spartans  from  Amphia;  and  as 
he  would  not  surrender,  they  wounded  and  would  have  slain 
him,  when  a  voice,  they  knew  not  whence,  called  out,  "Let 
go  the  oracle-bearer !  "  Tisis  reached  Ithome,  and,  having 
delivered  the  oracle  to  the  king,  died  of  his  wounds. 
Euphaes  read  the  response  to  the  assembled  people,  and  it 
was  found  that  the  god  directed  that  a  virgin  of  the  blood 
of  the  yEpytids  should  be  sacrificed  at  night  to  the  sub- 
terrene  deities.  If  she  whose  lot  was  drawn  should  escape, 
any  other  ^Epytid  might  give  his  daughter  voluntarily.  The 
lot  fell  on  the  daughter  of  Lyciscus;  but  the  soothsayer 
Epebolus,  gained  by  her  father,  declared  that  she  was  a  sup- 
posititious child,  and  forbade  the  sacrifice.  Lyciscus  then 
made  his  escape  with  his  daughter,  and  fled  to  Sparta.  The 
people,  learning  this,  were  in  consternation,  but  Aristodemus, 
an  iEpytid,  came  forward  and  offered  to  sacrifice  his  maiden 
daughter  for  the  good  of  his  country.  Her  lover  —  for  she 
was  betrothed — in  agony,  denied  that  her  father  had  now 
the  right  to  dispose  of  her :  then,  foiled  in  this  attempt,  he 
boldly  asserted  that  he  had  enjoyed  a  husband's  privilege, 
and  that  she  was  no  longer  a  maid,  and  would  be  ere  long  a 
mother.     Aristodemus,  stung  to  madness  by  this  imputation 


46  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

on  the  honor  of  his  house,  slew  his  hapless  child  with  his 
own  hand,  and,  ripping  her  open,  proved  the  falsehood  of  her 
lover's  assertion.  Epebolus  called  for  some  other  iEpytid 
to  give  his  daughter,  for  Aristodemus  had  murdered  Jiis,  and 
not  sacrificed  her  to  the  gods,  as  directed.  The  people 
rushed  to  take  vengeance  on  the  lover,  but  Euphaes,  whose 
friend  he  was,  declared  the  oracle  fulfilled ;  the  ^Epytids  all 
joyfully  assented ;  the  assembly  was  dissolved,  and  the  sacri- 
ficial feast  was  held.  The  Spartans  lost  spirit  when  they 
heard  what  had  been  done  in  Ithome. 

Six  years  afterwards,  in  the  thirteenth  of  the  war,  the 
Spartans  again  invaded  Messene,  and,  in  the  battle  which 
ensued,  King  Euphaes,  fighting  with  the  utmost  heroism, 
received  a  mortal  wound.  As  he  left  no  children,  the  Mes- 
senians  proceeded  to  elect  a  king :  the  candidates  were 
Aristodemus,  Cleonnis,  and  Damis.  The  soothsayers  Epeb- 
olus and  Ophioneus  were  unanimous  in  declaring  that  the 
dignity  of  iEpytus  should  not  be  given  to  a  man  stained  with 
the  blood  of  his  own  child.  The  people,  however,  would  have 
him,  and  he  was  chosen  king.  In  his  high  office  he  was 
just  and  generous,  and  he  held  in  particular  esteem  his 
rivals  for  the  throne. 

For  four  years  the  war  was  confined  to  pillaging  incur- 
sions into  each  other's  territory.  In  the  fifth  year,  the  allies 
on  both  sides  appeared.  The  Arcadians  and  some  compa- 
nies of  Argives  and  Sicyonians  joined  the  Messenians  ;  the 
Spartans  were  only  aided  from  Corinth.  Aristodemus  drew 
up  his  army  at  the  foot  of  Ithome :  he  gave  chief  commands 
to  Cleonnis  and  Damis.  His  arrangements  were  judicious, 
and  a  signal  victory  that  day  crowned  the  Messenian  arms. 

The  Spartans  now  sent,  in  their  turn,  to  consult  the  ora- 
cle, and  the  god  directed  them  to  employ  art  as  well  as 
force ;  for  Messene  was  originally  acquired,  and  would  be 
acquired  again,  by  stratagem.  Stratagem  was  then  tried, 
but  in  vain  ;  equally  vain  were  the  attempts  to  detach  the 
allies  of  the  Messenians. 

In  the  twentieth  year  of  the  war,  the  Messenians  sent  to 


THE    MESSENIAN    WARS.  47 

Delphi,  and  the  god  replied  that  victory  would  be  with  those 
who  first  placed  one  hundred  tripods  round  the  altar  of 
Zeus  Ithomates.  As  this  altar  was  within  the  walls  of 
Ithome,  they  were  now  certain  of  success,  and,  having  no  brass, 
they  resolved  to  make  the  tripods  of  wood.  But  a  Del- 
phian had  sent  the  reponses  to  Sparta.  The  council  there 
could  decide  on  nothing ;  but  a  man  of  no  note,  named 
CEbalus,  formed  one  hundred  tripods  of  clay,  and,  putting 
them  in  a  bag,  and  taking  a  hunting-net  with  him,  entered 
Ithome  with  the  peasants  in  the  evening ;  and  having,  during 
the  night,  placed  them  about  the  altar,  he  hastened  home  to 
tell  what  he  had  done.  The  Messenians,  when  they  saw 
the  tripods,  knew  it  was  an  artifice  of  the  enemy ;  Aristode- 
mus,  however,  bade  them  be  of  good  cheer,  and  they  set  the 
wooden  ones  round  the  altar. 

But  the  end  of  Messene  was  now  at  hand,  and  signs  and 
prodigies  came  to  announce  it.  The  shield  fell  from  the 
hand  of  the  armed  statue  of  Artemis,  and  the  rams  which 
Aristodemus  was  about  to  offer  to  Zeus  Ithomates,  dashed 
their  heads  against  the  altar  and  died.  The  dogs  in  the 
town  assembled  and  kept  howling  all  through  the  night,  and 
then  went  off  in  a  body  to  the  Spartan  camp.  A  terrific 
dream  came  to  appall  the  firm  mind  of  Aristodemus.  He 
dreamed  that  he  was  armed,  and  going  forth  to  battle ;  the 
entrails  of  the  victims  lay  on  a  table  before  him :  suddenly 
his  murdered  daughter  appeared,  clad  in  black,  and,  dis- 
playing her  open  breast  and  womb,  she  cast  the  entrails  on 
the  ground,  stripped  him  of  his  arms,  placed  a  golden  crown 
on  his  head,  and  arrayed  him  in  a  white  garment.  Aristo- 
demus, on  awaking,  judged  that  his  death  was  at  hand,  for 
such  was  the  dress  in  which  the  Messenians  bore  to  the 
grave  all  persons  of  note.  Soon  after,  seeing  no  further 
hopes  for  his  country,  and  aware  that  he  had  to  no  purpose 
been  the  slayer  of  his  own  child,  he  slew  himself  on  her 
grave.  Struck  by  this  event,  the  Messenians  thought  on 
surrender,  but  nobler  sentiments  soon  prevailed  :  they  chose 
Damis  for  their  leader,  and  went  forth  to  battle ;  but  fortune 


48  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

still  was  adverse ;  their  leaders  and  men  of  note  all  fell,  and, 
after  sustaining  hunger  and  siege  for  five  months  longer,  they 
abandoned  Ithome  and  their  country.  Thus  terminated  the 
first  Messenian  war,  (01.  14,  1.,)  after  a  continuance  of 
twenty  years. 

Such  of  the  Messenians  as  had  jyroxenics  *  iu  Argos,  Si- 
cyon,  and  Arcadia,  retired  to  these  places.  Those  who  re- 
mained were  reduced  to  the  most  oppressive  state  of  Helot- 
ism,  being  obliged  to  yield  their  Spartan  lords  one  half  of 
the  annual  produce  of  their  lands,  and  to  mourn  for  their 
kings  like  the  Helots  of  Laconia,  etc. 

During  thirty-eight  years,  the  Messenians  remained  in  this 
state  of  thraldom.  A  generation  had  arisen  which  knew 
not  the  evils  of  the  former  war,  and  it  was  resolved  to  make 
an  effort  for  independence.  An  alliance  was  secretly  formed 
with  the  Aigives  and  Arcadians,  and  (Ol.  -3,  4.)  the  stand- 
ard of  revolt  was  raised.  The  foremost  in  this  movement 
were  the  people  of  Andania,  (the  district  north-east  of  Steny- 
claros,)  headed  by  Aristomenes,  a  valiant  youth  of  the  race 
of  the  jEpytids,  to  whom  popular  tradition  assigned  a  divine 
origin  ;  for  a  god,  it  was  said,  had  visited  the  chamber  of  his 
mother  Nicoteleia,  (Yictory-complitfr.) 

It  was  at  Derae,  a  place  on  their  own  territory,  that  the 
Messenians  first  ventured  to  meet  their  oppressors  in  arms. 
The  battle  was  indecisive  ;  at  the  close  of  it,  the  Messenians 
elected  Aristomenes  king ;  but  he  declined  royalty,  satisfied 
with  the  office  of  commander-in-chief.  He  shortly  after- 
wards secretly  entered,  Sparta  by  night,  and,  next  morning, 
the  haughty  Dorians  saw  on  the  temple  of  the  Chalcirecos  a 
shield  bearing  the  inscription,  "  Aristomenes  to  the  goddess 
from  the  Spartans/' 

The  Spartans,  as  was  their  wont,  sent  to  Delphi,  and  the 
god  directed  them  to  fetch  a  counsellor  from  Athens.  The 
Athenians,  when  applied  to,  feared  to  disobey  the  god,  and 
they  wished  not  to  see  the  power  of  the  Spartans  increased  ; 

*  The  proxeny  (inol^.a)  was  an  engagement  of  mutual  hospitality. 


THE    MESSENIAN    WARS.  49 

they  therefore  sent  a  lame  poet,  of  no  great  repute  for  wis- 
dom, named  Tyrtaeus.  Events  showed  their  expectation  that 
he  would  be  of  no  advantage  to  be  a  vain  one. 

Next  year  the  allies  on  both  sides  appeared  :  Arcadians, 
Eleians,  Argives,  and  Sicyonians,  joined  the  Messenians  ; 
the  Corinthians  were  with  the  Spartans.  The  armies  met  in 
the  Stenyclarian  Plain,  at  a  spot  named  the  Wild-Boar's 
Monument,  (xdrroou  a\ua  :)  the  soothsayers,  on  both  sides, 
urged  to  battle  ;  Tyrtseus  encouraged  the  rear  of  the  Spar- 
tans, the  priests  of  the  Great  Goddesses  (Demeter  and  the 
Kora)  that  of  the  Messenians,  to  vigorous  exertion.  Aris- 
tomenes,  at  the  head  of  eighty  picked  men  of  his  own  age, 
rushed  against  the  Spartan  king  Anaxander  :  the  contest  was 
long  and  bloody ;  at  length  the  Spartans  fled ;  the  Mes- 
senian  band  attacked  and  routed  the  enemy  wherever  they 
made  a  stand.  The  soothsayer  Theocles  had  warned  Aris- 
tomenes  not  to  pass  a  wild  pear-tree  on  which  the  Dioscuri  * 
were  sitting,  the  invisible  spectators  of  the  conflict ;  but,  in 
the  ardor  of  pursuit,  he  neglected  the  warning ;  at  the  tree 
he  dropped  his  shield,  which  the  Twins  conveyed  away  un- 
seen, and  while  he  sought  it  the  remaining  foes  escaped. 
The  hero  came  victorious  back  to  Andania,  and  the  women 
strewed  ribbons  and  flowers  before  him,  while  they  sang 
verses  celebrating  his  glorious  deeds. 

Anxious  to  recover  his  shield,  Aristomenes  went  to  Del- 
phi ;  and,  by  the  directions  of  the  Pythia,  he  visited  the  cavern 
of  Trophonius  in  Lebadeia.  Here  he  found  his  buckler, 
and,  returning  home,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his  chosen 
band,  and  one  evening  took  and  plundered  the  town  of 
Pharae  in  Laconia.  Soon  after  he  penetrated  by  night  into 
Sparta  itself,  but  was  repelled  by  an  apparition  of  Helena 
and  the  Dioscuri.  He  then  lay  in  wait  for  the  Spartan 
damsels,  who  were  dancing  in  honor  of  Artemis  at  Caryae, 
and  carried  off  those  of  highest  rank  among  them.  At  night 
he  halted  in  a  village  of  Messene ;  and  here  some  of  his 

*  The  Twin-gods  Castor  and  Pollux. 
5  G 


50  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

comrades,  having  drunk  too  much,  went  to  offer  violence  to 
their  captives.  Finding  remonstrance  vain,  the  hero  slew 
the  most  violent  with  his  own  hand,  and  he  returned  the 
virgins  uninjured  to  their  parents  on  receiving  the  usual 
ransom. 

He  next  made  an  attempt  on  iEgila,  where  the  women 
were  celebrating  the  feast  of  Demeter ;  but  they  defended 
themselves  so  well  with  knives  and  spits,  that  they  drove  off 
the  Messenians,  and  made  Aristomenes  himself  a  prisoner. 
But  the  priestess  of  the  goddess,  who  loved  him,  gave  him 
his  liberty  that  night,  and  asserted  to  the  Spartans  that  he 
had  contrived  to  burn  his  bonds. 

In  the  third  year,  the  Messenians,  strongly  aided  by  the 
Arcadians,  met  their  oppressors  at  a  place  named  the  Great 
Ditch.  The  Spartans,  dubious  of  victory,  had  recourse  to 
corruption ;  they  bribed  Aristocrates,  the  commander  of  the 
Arcadians,  and  he  induced  his  troops  to  fly  as  the  engage- 
ment was  commencing ;  the  Spartans  then  easily  surrounded 
the  Messenians,  and,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  Aristom- 
enes and  his  devoted  band,  a  total  defeat  was  the  lot  of  the 
patriots. 

Assembling  those  who  had  escaped  on  this  fatal  day,  the 
Messenian  hero  advised  to  abandon  Andania  and  all  other 
towns,  and  make  their  last  stand  at  Eira,  a  mountain  north- 
west of  Stenyclaros,  on  the  river  Neda,  and  not  far  from  the 
sea,  whence  they  might  get  supplies.  Thither  they  accord- 
ingly retired,  followed  by  their  persevering  foes.  Aided  by 
the  people  of  Pylos  and  Mothone,  the  Messenians  ravaged 
alike  by  sea  their  own  country  and  Laconia ;  and  Aristom- 
enes, having  augmented  his  chosen  band  to  three  hundred 
men,  did  such  mischief  by  plundering  excursions,  that  the 
Spartans  made  a  decree  to  let  all  the  lands  within  his  reach 
lie  waste.  Famine  ensued  at  Sparta,  and  then  rose  a  se- 
dition, which  was  stilled  by  the  strains  of  Tyrtseus. 

Late  one  evening,  Aristomenes  set  out  with  his  trusty 
band,  and  ere  day  he  reached  the  town  of  Amyclae,  near 
Sparta,  which  he  took  and  plundered.     He  retired  before  aid 


THE    MESSENIAN    WARS.  51 

could  arrive  from  Sparta;  but,  continuing  to  scour  the 
country,  he  fell  in  with  a  large  body  of  the  Spartans,  who  were 
in  pursuit  of  him.  Numbers  overwhelmed  the  brave  Mes- 
senians  ;  and  fifty  of  them,  with  their  leader,  who  was  stunned 
by  the  blow  of  a  stone  on  the  head,  were  made  prisoners. 
On  reaching  Sparta,  they  were  thrown  into  the  pit  called  the 
Kaias  :  all  perished  in  the  fall  but  Aristomenes,  whom,  as 
the  legend  told,  an  eagle  supported  on  his  wings,  and  bore 
safely  to  the  bottom.*  Awaiting  his  death  from  hunger,  he 
lay  patiently  enveloped  in  his  cloak ;  on  the  third  day,  hear- 
ing a  noise,  he  uncovered  his  face,  and  saw  a  fox  come  to 
prey  on  the  bodies  ;  he  caught  the  animal  by  the  tail  when 
it  came  near  him,  and  ran  as  it  ran  till  he  saw  the  light 
from  the  hole  through  which  it  used  to  enter  the  cavern,  t 
This  hole  he  widened  sufficiently  to  admit  him  to  pass 
through,  and  soon  the  Spartans  learned,  to  their  dismay,  that 
Aristomenes  was  once  more  at  Eira. 

A  body  of  Corinthians,  coming  to  the  aid  of  the  Spartans 
before  Eira,  were  fallen  on  in  the  night,  and  cut  to  pieces  by 
Aristomenes,  who  now  offered,  for  the  second  time,  a  heca- 
tomphony  f  to  Zeus  Ithomates.  As  the  Hyacinthia  was  at 
hand,  the  Spartans  made  a  truce  for  forty  days  to  celebrate 
the  festival,  and  went  home.  Aristomenes  came  out  of  Eira, 
relying  on  the  truce ;  but  he  was  waylaid  and  seized  by  seven 
Cretan  archers  in  the  pay  of  the  Spartans :  they  bound  him 
with  their  bowstrings:  two  of  them  ran  with  the  joyful 
news  to  Sparta ;  the  rest,  as  it  was  evening,  took  him  to  a 
cottage,  in  which  were  dwelling  only  a  widow  and  her 
daughter.  This  maiden  had,  the  night  before,  had  a  dream, 
in  which  she  saw  wolves  bringing  her  a  lion  bound,  without 

*  It  is  ludicrous  to  see  the  manner  in  which  Gillies  endeavors  to 
extract  truth  out  of  this  evident  fiction.  He  says,  the  shield  of  Aris- 
tomenes, on  which  was  the  figure  of  an  eagle,  broke  his  fall,  etc. — 
never  once  thinking  of  the  improbability  of  such  a  circumstance. 

t  The  fox  was  the  emblem  of  Messene,  (see  above,  p.  21,)  —  hence 
the  legend. 

t  A  sacrifice  offered  for  having  slain  a  hundred  enemies. 


52 


HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 


claws  :  she  had  in  her  dream  loosed  the  lion  and  given  him 
claws,  and  he  had  torn  the  wolves;  she  now  saw  its  mean- 
ing ;  she  made  the  Cretans  drunk,  cut  the  captive's  bonds 
with  one  of  their  swords,  and  with  it  he  then  slew  them  all. 
To  reward  the  maiden,  Aristomenes  united  her  in  marriage 
with  his  son  Gorgos. 

The  eleventh  year  of  the  siege  was  come.  Aristomenes 
and  the  soothsayer  Theoclus  had,  after  the  defeat  of  the 
Great  Ditch,  gone  to  Delphi,  where  the  Pythia  told  them 
that  Messene  would  be  lost  when  the  buck-goat  [rgdyog) 
drank  of  the  Neda.  They  thought  only  of  the  animal : 
the  god  meant  differently ;  for,  in  this  year,  as  Theoclus  was 
walking  along  the  river,  he  saw  a  wild  fig-tree,  which  the 
Messenians  call  Buck-goat,  (rQ&yog,)  growing  so  as  to  dip 
its  leaves  in  the  water :  he  secretly  brought  his  friend  to 
the  spot,  and  pointed  out  the  tree.  Aristomenes  saw  that 
the  end  of  Messene  was  at  hand ;  he  therefore  took  the 
sacred  pledge  on  which  the  hopes  of  its  recovery  rested, 
and  when  night  came,  he  set  out  and  buried  it  in  the  most 
desert  part  of  the  Ithome. 

A  runaway  slave  of  a  Spartan  of  rank,  who  carried  on  an 
intrigue  with  a  Messenian  woman,  used  to  visit  her  when 
her  husband  was  on  guard  at  the  Acropolis  of  Eira.  One 
night  it  rained  tremendously,  and  as  Aristomenes  was 
confined  by  a  wound,  and  there  seemed  no  danger  of  the 
Spartans  making  an  attempt  in  such  weather,  the  guards 
resolved  to  go  home  to  their  houses.  The  adulteress  had  her 
lover  with  her  when  her  husband  came :  she  concealed  him, 
and  he  heard  the  Messenian  tell  her  how  they  had  left  the 
citadel  unguarded :  he  stole  out,  and  ran  to  the  Spartan 
camp,  where  his  master  happened  to  have  the  chief  com- 
mand. The  occasion  was  not  to  be  lost :  heedless  of  the 
storm,  the  Spartans  set  forth,  and  occupied  the  deserted 
citadel:  a  terrific  howling  set  up  by  the  dogs  told  the 
Messenians  that  the  enemies  were  within,  and  they  flew  to 
arms.  During  the  night,  nothing  was  done  on  either  side. 
With  day,  Aristomenes  and  Theoclus,  though  they  knew 


THE    MESSENIAN    WARS.  53 

all  was  over,  exhorting  the  Messenians  to  do  valiantly, 
led  them  on ;  the  women  also,  bearing  arms,  resolved  to  die 
rather  than  be  slaves.  The  rain  still  poured,  the  thunder 
roared,  and  lightning  flamed;  the  Messenians  fought  un- 
dismayed; the  conflict  was  sustained  day  and  night.  On 
the  third  day,  Theoclus  called  to  Aristomenes  to  fight  no 
longer  in  vain,  but  to  save  himself  and  the  Messenians; 
then,  rushing  amid  the  foe,  he  cried  out  that  Messene  would 
not  always  be  theirs,  and  fell  covered  with  wounds.  Aris- 
tomenes recalled  his  men  from  the  fight,  and  directed  them 
to  form  in  a  body,  placing  the  women  and  children  in  the 
centre :  he  advanced  at  their  head,  intimating  that  he  de- 
manded a  passage :  the  Spartans,  deeming  it  imprudent  to 
drive  them  to  despair,  made  way,  and  the  last  champions 
of  independence  abandoned  Eira,  (01.  28,  1.) 

The  exiles  directed  their  steps  toward  Arcadia.  At 
Mount  Lycaeon  they  found  an  abundant  supply  of  food  and 
raiment  provided  for  them  by  the  Arcadians,  who  had  only 
been  prevented  from  going  to  their  aid  by  the  treachery  of 
Aristocrates.  They  offered  to  divide  their  lands  and  houses 
with  them.  Shortly  after,  Aristomenes  selected  five  hun- 
dred chosen  Messenians,  and  proposed  in  the  assembly  of 
the  Arcadians  to  fall  with  these  on  the  town  of  Sparta,  now 
without  defenders :  if  they  succeeded,  they  might  get  their 
own  country  again  in  exchange ;  if  they  failed,  they  would 
die  the  death  of  heroes.  The  assembly  approved,  and  three 
hundred  Arcadians  offered  to  join  him  ;  but  the  royal  traitor 
sent  intelligence  to  the  Spartan  king.  Some  of  the  Arca- 
dians, who  suspected  him,  waylaid  his  messenger  on  his 
return,  and  found  on  him  a  letter  thanking  Aristocrates  for 
his  services.  The  traitor  was  stoned  to  death,  and  his  body 
cast  out  of  the  land,  unburied. 

The  people  of  Pylos  and  Mothone  also  quitted  their 
country.  Getting  on  shipboard,  they  came  to  the  port  of 
Cyllene  in  Elis,  whence  they  sent  to  the  Messenian  exiles, 
inviting  them  to  come  and  join  them  in  forming  a  colony. 
They  joyfully  consented  :  some  were  for  seizing  the  Isle  of 
5* 


%» 


54  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

Zacynthus,  and  thence  harassing  the  Spartans;  others  for 
going  to  Sardinia.  Meantime,  envoys  came  from  Anaxilas, 
prince  of  the  Dorian  colony  at  Rhegion  in  Italy,  inviting 
them  to  come  and  aid  him  against  the  Zanclaeans  of  Sicily. 
They  went,  conquered  the  Zanclaeans,  then  coalesced  with 
them,  and  named  the  town,  instead  of  Zancle,  Messana, — 
a  name  which,  slightly  altered,  it  still  retains. 

Aristomenes,  still  hoping  to  be  able  to  do  injury  to  the 
Spartans,  would  not  join  the  colony.  Some  time  after, 
Damagetes,  prince  of  Jalysus  in  Rhodes,  consulting  the 
oracle,  was  directed  to  marry  the  daughter  of  the  bravest 
man  in  Greece.  As  none  could  dispute  the  palm  with  the 
hero  of  Messene,  the  Rhodian  prince  became  his  son-in-law, 
and  the  illustrious  warrior  ended  his  days  in  tranquillity  at 
Rhodes. 

Those  who  are  versed  in  mythic  narrative,  will  at  once 
discern  the  semi-mythic  character  of  these  Messenian  wars, 
which  are  only  less  marvellous  than  those  of  Thebes  and 
Troy,  because  the  gods  do  not  personally  and  visibly  appear 
in  them.*  The  details  are  not  given  by  Herodotus ;  they 
are  only  to  be  found  in  the  work  of  Pausanias,  a  late  writer, 
who  derived  them  from  the  poem  of  Rhianus,  and  the  ro- 
mantic narrative  of  Myron,  both  of  whom  wrote  long  after 
the  Messenians  had  been  restored  to  their  country,!  (01. 
102,  3,)  from  the  various  traditions  which  remained  of  the 
ancient  heroes  and  ancient  misfortunes  of  Messene.  The 
main  facts  only  can  therefore  be  regarded  as  truth ;  the  de- 
tails are  mostly  to  be  viewed  as  fiction. 

After  the  conquest  of  Messene  the  power  of  the  Spartans 
was  by  far  the  greatest  in  Peloponnesus.  They  still,  how- 
ever, were  unable  to  make  any  impression  on  Arcadia;  and 
a  long  course  of  warfare  with  their  Arcadian  neighbors 
of  Tegea,  whose  hoplites  nearly  equalled  their  own,  termi- 
nated in  the   Tegeans  acknowledging  their  supremacy  in 

*  Yet  even  this  feature  is  not  totally  absent.    See  p.  48. 

t  Rhianus  flourished  Ol.  140 :  the  age  of  Myron  is  unknown. 


EARLY    STATE    OF    ATTICA.  55 

military  confederations,   and  being  assigned,  in  return,  the 
second  place  in  the  combined  armies.* 

With  their  neighbors  of  Argos  the  Spartans  had  also 
frequent  warfare.  The  Dorians  of  Argos,  who  seem  to  have 
made  their  first  settlement  at  the  head  of  the  Argolic  Gulf, 
extended  their  conquests  southwards  along  the  sea-coast; 
and  the  district  round  Cynuria,  reaching  to  Cape  Malea, 
acknowledged  their  authority.  When  the  Spartans  became 
sufficiently  strong,  they  coveted  this  region,  and  gradually 
succeeded  in  acquiring  possession  of  it. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

EARLY  STATE  OF    ATTICA. CRISSiEAN    WAR. LEGISLATION 

OF    SOLON. 

We  have  seen  that  when  the  Ionians  abandoned  Pelopon- 
nesus, they  retired  to  Attica.  In  like  manner,  the  royal 
house  of  the  Neleids,  descendants  of  Neleus,  father  of  Nes- 
tor, and  prince  of  Pylos  in  Messene,  when  forced  to  yield 
to  the  Dorians,  sought  a  refuge  in  this  hospitable  land.  The 
Athenians  were  at  that  time,  it  is  said,  at  war  with  the 
Boeotians,  and  the  Boeotian  prince  offered  to  decide  the 
dispute  by  a  single  combat  between  himself  and  the  Athe- 
nian monarch.  The  combat  was  declined  by  Thymcetas, 
the  Theseid,  who  then  governed  Athens:  Melanthus,  the 
exiled  Neleid,  offered  to  fight  in  his  stead  ;  his  proffer  was 
accepted ;  the  Boeotian  prince  fell  beneath  his  arm,  the  de- 
generate descendant  of  Theseus  was  deposed,  and  his  royal 
dignity  given  to  the  valiant  stranger. 

The  throne  of  Athens  was  occupied  by  Codrus,  the  son 

*  Herod,  i.  66—68. 


56  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

of  Melanthus,  at  the  time  when  the  Dorians  of  Pelopon- 
nesus endeavored  to  extend  their  dominion  beyond  the 
Isthmus.  They  had  pitched  their  camp  on  the  Uissus,  near 
the  town  of  Athens.  But  a  response  of  the  oracle  made  it 
dubious  what  the  result  would  be ;  for  it  had  promised  the 
victory  only  on  condition  of  not  violating  the  person  of  the 
Athenian  king.  Codrus,  learning  this,  disguised  himself  as 
a  peasant,  and  entered  the  Dorian  camp.  Here  he  picked 
a  quarrel  with  a  soldier,  and  fell  by  his  hand :  an  Athenian 
herald  soon  appeared  to  demand  the  body  of  their  king. 
The  Dorians,  now  hopeless  of  success,  retired,  limiting  their 
conquests  to  Megaris;  and  the  Athenians,  to  honor  the 
self-devotion  of  Codrus,  decreed  that  none  should  bear  the 
royal  title  again  in  Attica.  Archon  {Prince)  was  the  name 
under  which  his  son  Medon  (Ruler)  was  appointed  to  suc- 
ceed :  his  authority  was,  however,  for  life.  Others  of  the 
sons  of  Codrus  placed  themselves  at  the  head  of  the  colo- 
nies which  were  at  this  time  going  over  to  Asia. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  the  air  of  fable  which 
these  narratives  present.*  Their  date  alone,  so  long  ante- 
rior to  the  time  in  which  history  was  first  written  in  Greece, 
would  suffice  to  throw  doubt  on  them.  The  facts  which 
they  contain  seem  to  be  only  these ;  the  Neleids  came  to 
Attica,  though  it  does  not  follow  that  they  obtained  the 
royal  authority ;  and  monarchy  was  abolished  there  at  an 
early  period. 

Like  all  the  rest  of  Greece,  Attica  appears  to  have  origi- 
nally consisted  of  a  number  of  small  communities,  inde- 
pendent of  each  other,  each  with  its  prince  and  its  body  of 
nobles  or  land-owners.  Tradition  spoke  of  a  fourfold  di- 
vision of  the  population,  into  Geleontes  or  Teleontes,  Hop- 
lites,  iEgicoreis,  and  Argadeis  or  Ergadeis,  which  some 
suppose  to  have  been  castes,  like  those  of  Egypt  and  India, 
and  to  have  been  established  by  the  Egyptian  Cecrops ;  by 

*  They  are  not  to  be  found  in  Herodotus,  but  are  related,  after 
Ephorus  chiefly,  by  Pausanias,  Justin,  and  other  late  writers. 


EARLY    STATE    OF    ATTICA.  57 

others  they  are  regarded  as  merely  local  phyles,  (cpvlul,)  or 
tribes:  the  Argadeis  being  the  cultivators  of  the  plains 
and  vales  of  the  interior,  the  ^Egicoreis  the  goatherds  of 
the  hills,  the  Hoplites  the  military,  perhaps  Ionian,*  pos- 
sessors of  the  plain  of  Athens,  and  the  Teleontes  the  sacer- 
dotal owners  of  Eleusis  and  its  district. 

A  further  division  of  these  phyles  into  the  orders  of  the 
Eupatrids,  (Well-born,)  Geomores  or  Thetes, (Cultivator  s,f) 
and  Demiurges,  (Workmen,)  is  also  mentioned.  This  ac- 
cords with  the  divisions  of  society  presented  by  the  Ho- 
meric poems ;  the  Eupatrids  being  the  owners  of  the  soil, 
the  Geomores  the  tenants,  and  the  Demiurges  the  class  of 
artisans.  The  phyles  were  also  divided  into  Phratries 
(cpouTQlui)  and  Houses,  (jivB,at)  answering  to  the  curia  and 
gentes  of  the  Roman  patricians.  Each  phyle  contained 
three  phratries,  each  phratry  thirty  houses,  and  each  house 
thirty  families. 

A  union  of  the  phyles  into  one  state  is  ascribed  to  a  prince 
named  Theseus,  of  Ionian  descent,  from  the  opposite  coast 
of  the  Argolic  Acte.  Whether  Theseus  be  a  real  prince, 
or,  as  his  name  might  seem  to  denote,  \  a  purely  mythic 
person,  is  a  matter  of  little  consequence.  His  name  stands 
for  an  order  of  things,  the  union  of  Attica  under  one  head, 
with  the  town  of  Athens  for  its  capital.  We  are  hence- 
forth to  view  the  Eupatrids  of  the  four  phyles  as  forming 
one  body,  actuated  by  a  common  interest,  and  the  inferior 
classes  (there  being  as  yet  no  town-population  of  any  mag- 
nitude) yielding  a  willing  obedience  to  those  whom  they 
regarded  as  their  natural  superiors.  The  struggle  was  be- 
tween the  nobles  and  the  prince ;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
first  advantage  which  they  gained  was  the  transforming  him 
into  an  accountable  magistrate,  (like  the  Doge  of  Venice,) 

*  It  was  a  tradition  that  Ion,  the  son  of  Xuthus,  (see  above,  p.  12,) 
came  to  Attica,  and  was  the  author  of  this  division  of  the  people. 

t  There  was  probably  among  these  a  good  number  of  small  propri- 
etors. 

X  Otjoevg,  from  -Situ,  t/S»;mj,  to  set,  arrange,  regulate. 

H 


58  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  office,  however,  being  for  life,  and  confined  to  the  family 
of  the  Codrids  and  their  relatives  the  Alcmaeonids. 

The  chronologists  place  the  death  of  Codrus  and  this 
change  in  the  year  1068  B.  C. ;  and  three  hundred  and  six- 
teen years  afterwards  (Ol.  7,  1,)  the  office  of  archon  was 
limited  to  ten  years,  but  it  was  still  confined  to  the  Co- 
drids and  Alcmaeonids.  Hippomenes,  the  fourth  of  these 
magistrates,  having,  it  is  said,  put  his  daughter  to  a  cruel 
death  for  breach  of  chastity,  the  Eupatrids  seized  the  op- 
portunity of  extending  their  authority ;  and,  as  it  would 
appear,  they  opened  the  office  of  archon  to  other  families 
besides  the  former  two.  At  length,  (Ol.  24,  2,)  they  ad- 
vanced still  further  ;  they  reduced  the  archontate  to  one 
year,  and,  instead  of  one  archon,  there  were  nine  annually 
elected  by  and  out  of  the  body  of  the  Eupatrids.  Of  these, 
the  first  was  named  the  Archon  Eponymus,  (Name-giving,) 
as  the  year  was  named  from  him ;  the  second  the  Basileus, 
(King,)  whose  duty  it  was  to  perform  such  sacrifices  as  had 
been  performed  by  the  kings ;  the  third  was  the  Polemarch, 
or  general ;  the  remaining  six  were  named  Thesmothetes,  or 
judges  ;  they  presided  in  the  courts,  and  from  their  decision 
there  was  no  appeal. 

The  Eupatrids,  having  thus  succeeded  in  abolishing  the 
monarchy,  and  drawing  all  power  to  themselves,  had  con- 
verted the  constitution  into  an  aristocracy,  verging  on  oli- 
garchy. Their  treatment  of  the  inferior  classes  was,  as  is 
almost  always  the  case  in  such  a  state  of  things,  harsh  and 
oppressive.  Want  of  documents  prevents  our  being  able  to 
say  with  certainty  what  the  condition  of  the  latter  was  at 
this  time ;  but  it  is  probable  that,  in  consequence  of  the  con- 
nection with  the  flourishing  colonies  of  Ionia,  Athens  now 
began  to  have  a  considerable  trade :  for  this  and  for  other 
purposes  money  was  borrowed  from  the  Eupatrids :  the 
Geomores  of  the  country  may  have  gotten  into  their  debt 
also  from  various  causes.  The  law  of  debt  was  cruel,  as 
the  insolvent  debtor  and  his  family  might  be  made  slaves, 
and  even  sold  out  of  the  country;  and,  as  the  courts  of  law 


EARLY  STATE  OF  ATTICA.  59 

were  in  the  hands  of  the  Eupatrids,  justice  was  not  to  be 
always  had  :  altogether,  the  state  of  things  very  much  re- 
sembled that  at  Rome  after  the  abolition  of  royalty. 

An  attempt  was  made  (01.  39,  1)  to  obviate  the  evils  of 
a  want  of  fixed  rules,  and  Draco,  the  archon  of  that  year, 
introduced  laws  for  that  purpose.  But  as  he  did  not  attempt 
to  remedy  the  defects  of  the  constitution,  and  his  laws  were 
so  immoderately  severe  as  to  defeat  their  own  object,  the 
attempt  was  a  complete  failure. 

Fortunately  for  mankind,  those  who  are  possessed  of 
power  have  not  always  the  wisdom  to  preserve  it  by  concord 
among  themselves.  The  Attic  nobles,  like  those  of  the 
Italian  cities  of  the  middle  ages,  had  their  feuds  and  ani- 
mosities. Cylon,  one  of  their  number,  had  married  the 
daughter  of  Theagenes,  the  tyrant  or  prince  of  Megara ;  and 
in  reliance  on  his  aid,  and  that  of  his  own  party  at  home, 
he  resolved  to  attempt  to  gain  similar  power.  He  therefore 
(Ol.  42,  1)  suddenly  seized  on  the  Acropolis  or  citadel  of 
Athens;  but  the  other  Eupatrids  would  not  tamely  yield 
him  the  supreme  authority.  They  hastened  from  all  parts 
at  the  head  of  their  tenants,  and  besieged  him  in  the  Acrop- 
olis. It  would  appear  that  he  had  been  able  to  lay  in  a 
sufficient  supply  of  provisions;  for,  wearied  out  with  the 
length  of  the  siege,  the  greater  part  of  them  went  home, 
leaving  the  archons  to  continue  the  blockade.  Cylon  and 
his  brother  contrived  to  escape ;  the  remainder,  when  seve- 
ral of  them  had  died  of  hunger,  sat  as  suppliants  at  the  altar 
of  the  goddess  Athena.  Megacles  the  Alcmaeonid,  one 
of  the  archons,  persuaded  them  to  leave  it,  promising  them 
justice.  They  fastened  a  cord  to  the  altar,  and  went  down, 
still  holding  it  in  their  hands ;  but  the  cord  happening  to 
break  as  they  came  to  the  temple  of  the  Erinnyes,  the 
archons,  crying  out  that  the  goddess  gave  them  up,  fell  on 
and  slaughtered  them.  A  bitter  feud  now  prevailed  between 
the  two  parties ;  and  at  length  the  wiser  and  more  prudent 
people  interfering,  the  Alcmseonids  were  induced  to  submit 
their  cause  to  justice,  and  thirty  of  them  were  sentenced  to 


60  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

banishment;  the  bones  of  such  as  had  died  were  dug  up 
and  cast  out  of  the  land,  that  it  might  be  purified  from  the 
guilt  of  blood.* 

The  Megarians,  who  had  aided  the  party  of  Cylon,  re- 
covered, during  the  feud,  their  port  of  Nisaea  and  the  Isle  of 
Salamis,  of  which  the  Athenians  had  had  possession.  The 
wrath  of  Heaven  seemed  also,  to  the  apprehension  of  the 
people,  to  be  declared  against  their  involuntary  guilt ;  and 
Epimenides,  a  sage  and  soothsayer  from  Crete,  was  invited 
to  come  and  purify  the  city.  Epimenides,  the  friend  of 
Solon,  and  those  who  meditated  a  removal  of  the  political, 
the  true  evils  of  the  country,  sought  to  calm  the  terrors  of 
superstition,  and  to  pave  the  way  for  the  intended  legisla- 
tion of  his  friend,  by  inspiring  a  desire  for  order  and  justice.! 

Solon,  the  author  of  the  new  legislation,  was  a  Codrid  by 
descent;  and  his  character,  in  which  moderation  and  the 
love  of  justice  were  conspicuous  traits,  qualified  him  beyond 
all  men  of  his  time  for  the  office  of  a  lawgiver.  J  We  must 
here  relate  the  events  in  which  he  had  previously  borne  a 
part. 

The  Athenians,  it  is  said,  had  suffered  so  much  in  their 
contests  with  the  Megarians  for  the  recovery  of  the  Isle  of 
Salamis,  that  they  at  length  made  a  law  imposing  the  pen- 
alty of  death  on  any  one  who  should  advise  the  renewal  of 
war  on  account  of  it.  Solon  was  indignant  at  the  dishonor 
of  his  country  ;  and,  to  evade  the  law,  he  caused  a  report  to 
be  spread  that  he  was  out  of  his  mind.  He  meantime  kept 
close  at  home,  occupying  himself  with  the  composition  of  a 
poem  on  Salamis.  When  it  was  completed,  he  suddenly 
came  into  the  market,  and,  mounting  the  herald's  stone,  be- 
gan  to   sing   it.     The   people   assembled   round   him ;    his 

*  Herod,  v.  71.     Plut.  Solon,  12. 

t  Plut.  Solon.  This  writer's  life  of  the  legislator  is  the  chief 
authority  for  his  history  and  laws. 

t  The  maxim  "Too  much  of  nothing"  (Mij&v  ayav)  was  by  some 
ascribed  to  Solon ;  but  the  majority  of  authorities  give  it  to  Cheilon 
the  Lacedaemonian. 


CRISS^AN    WAR.  61 

friends,  as  had  of  course  been  arranged,  were  rapturous  in 
their  applause;  the  enthusiasm  spread,  the  law  was  repealed, 
war  declared,  and  by  a  stratagem  of  Solon's  the  island 
taken.  The  matter  being  referred  to  five  Spartan  arbitra- 
tors, they  decided  in  favor  of  the  Athenians,  and  adjudged 
them  the  island. 

The  Crissaeans,  who  inhabited  the  fertile  plain  of  Phocis, 
extending  from  Delphi  to  the  sea,  naturally  derived  great 
advantage  from  the  concourse  of  pilgrims  who  disembarked 
in  their  ports  to  repair  to  the  oracle.  As  trade  was  in 
Greece,  as  in  the  East,  connected  with  religion,  merchants 
were  in  the  habit  of  resorting  to  Delphi  with  their  wares ; 
and  the  Crissaeans  were  not  long  without  imposing  duties  on 
their  goods.  These  duties  they  gradually  augmented,  and 
then  proceeded  to  levy  a  tax  on  the  pilgrims.  The  Del- 
phians,  finding  the  number  of  pilgrims  diminishing,  com- 
plained of  this  infraction  of  the  decree  of  the  Amphictyons, 
who  had  declared  that  the  oracle  should  be  accessible  to  all 
without  expense.  The  Crissaeans  entered  the  Delphian  ter- 
ritory in  arms,  and  laid  it  waste  ;  and,  not  content  with  this 
injustice,  they  sacrilegiously  plundered  the  temple  and 
slaughtered  the  inhabitants  of  Delphi.  The  Amphictyons 
were  now  required  to  interfere  ;  but  the  Crissaeans,  it  would 
appear,  were  not  without  friends  in  that  assembly ;  and  it  was 
with  difficulty  that  Solon,  who  was  one  of  the  Athenian 
deputies,  induced  them  to  declare  war.  The  war,  however, 
was  feebly  carried  on  ;  the  Crissaeans,  who  now  had  wealth, 
probably  got  soldiers  and  friends  with  ease,  and  the  Crissaean 
war,  like  that  of  Troy,  lasted  ten  years.  Like  it,  too,  it 
ended  in  the  slaughter  or  slavery  of  the  vanquished  people; 
and  the  whole  Crissaean  territory  was,  in  accordance  with 
Solon's  interpretation  of  a  response  of  the  oracle,  consecra- 
ted to  the  god,  and  a  curse  pronounced  on  whoever  should 
presume  to  cultivate  it. 

It  was  during  the  time  of  the  Crissaean  war  that  Solon 
was  called  on  to  legislate  for  his  country.  The  want  of  con- 
temporary history  leaves  us  very  much  in  the  dark  as  to  the 
6 


62  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

real  state  of  things  in  Attica  at  this  time ;  but  it  appears  that 
the  number  of  the  inferior  orders  of  the  people  engaged  in 
agriculture  and  commerce  must  have  been  considerable,* 
and  that  the  distress  to  which  they  were  reduced  by  their 
debts  to  the  nobles  had  rendered  them  desperate.  The  no- 
bles, on  the  other  hand,  were  weakened  by  feuds  among 
themselves  ;  and  they  probably  were  wise  enough  to  discern 
that  it  was  better  to  give  way  in  time,  and  yield  up  a  part  of 
their  privileges,  than  see  themselves  deprived  of  the  whole 
by  the  establishment  of  a  tyranny. 

Solon,  being  archon,  (Ol.  46,  3,)  and  invested  with  abso- 
lute powers  for  the  purpose,  reformed  the  state  with  the  con- 
sent of  all  parties.  He  adhered  as  closely  as  was  possible 
to  the  original  forms  of  the  constitution,  reforming,  not  sub- 
verting, improving  what  was  good,  cutting  away  what  was 
evil. 

His  first  measure  was  the  relief  of  the  debtors,  which  was 
effected  by  his  seisachthy,  (osiaaxdela,)  or  act  of  disburden- 
ment,  of  which,  according  to  some  authorities,  the  provisions 
were,  the  reduction  of  the  rate  of  interest,  and  the  raising  the 
nominal  value  of  money,  (making  the  mina  be  counted  at 
100,  instead  of  its  previous  value,  73  drachmas;)  but  others 
maintained  that  the  seisachthy  was  a  literal  abolition  of  all 
outstanding  debts  and  securities,  answering  to  the  tabula 
nova  of  the  Romans.  A  necessary  consequence  of  this 
measure  was,  that  the  lands  of  the  small  proprietors,  which 
had  been  pledged,  were  restored  unencumbered  to  their  own- 
ers. The  practice  of  reducing  debtors  to  slavery  was  abol- 
ished ;  those  who  were  in  that  state  were  released ;  those 
who  had  been  sold  out  of  the  country  were  repurchased  and 
set  at  liberty. 

Solon  then  restored  to  the  enjoyment  of  their  civic  rights 

*  It  is  probable  that  the  trade  of  Athens  was  very  extensive  at  this 
time.  There  was  a  corn  trade  from  the  Euxine,  timber  for  ship-building 
was  imported  from  Macedonia,  and  the  Chersonese  was  colonized.  The 
commercial  population  of  Athens  must,  therefore,  have  been  nu- 
merous. 


LEGISLATION    OF    SOLON.  63 

all  the  citizens  who  had  fallen  into  atimy,  *  (drifila,)  except- 
ing only  those  who  had  been  found  guilty  of  crimes  against 
the  state.  Every  Athenian  citizen  who  was  not  made 
atlmous  anew,  was  now  authorized  to  appear  and  to  speak  in 
the  public  assembly,  and  to  be  a  juror  in  the  courts  of  jus- 
tice. The  different  ages  at  which  these  rights  might  be  ex- 
ercised were  determined  by  law. 

Abolishing  the  exclusive  privileges  of  the  Eupatrids,  Solon 
divided  the  citizens  into  four  classes,  regulated  by  property. 
The  first  class  contained  all  those  whose  lands  yielded  them 
annually  five  hundred  measures  and  upwards  of  solid  or 
liquid  produce ;  hence  they  were  called  Pentacosiomedim- 
nians,  f  (nevTaxoviofiedifivoi, ;)  the  archontate  and  other  great 
offices  in  the  state,  and  the  chief  commands  in  war,  belonged 
to  them.  The  second  class  were  those  whose  income  was 
three  hundred  measures  and  upwards,  and  who  were  able  to 
keep  a  war-horse:  they  were  named  Horsemen  ^In7islg.)\ 
The  third  class  consisted  of  those  whose  income  was  one 
hundred  and  fifty  measures  and  upwards :  they  were  named 
Zeugites,  (Zsuylrat,)  as  keeping  a  yoke  (^evyog)  of  plough- 
cattle.  These  last  two  classes  formed  the  main  strength  of 
the  army,  and  were  eligible  to  be  members  of  the  Council 
of  Four  Hundred.  The  fourth  class,  named  Thetes,  ( 0rjrej,) 
whose  income  fell  short  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  medimns, 
were  not  required  to  serve  in  war,  and  could  hold  no  office  ; 
their  only  privileges  were  those  of  serving  on  juries  and  ap- 
pearing in  the  assemblies. 

Thus  we  see  Solon  changed  the  aristocracy  of  birth  into 
a  timocracy,  (i^oxodrem,)    or   one   of  wealth.     The   four 

*  Mirny  is  incapacity  of  honor  or  office.  The  chief  causes  of  atirny 
were,  debt  to  the  state,  neglect  of  parents,  waste  of  property,  immoral 
life,  cowardice,  false  witness,  etc.  The  atimous  could  not  appear  in 
the  assembly,  sit  as  jurors,  or  be  present  at  the  public  sacrifices.  In 
the  present  case,  the  far  greater  part  of  the  atimous  were  so  on  account 
of  debt. 

t  The  Attic  medimnus  nearly  answers  to  the  English  bushel. 

X  Usually  rendered  Knights.  This  word,  however,  suggests  ideas 
which  are  too  modern. 


64  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

phyles  and  their  subdivisions  were  left  untouched,  and  the 
Eupatrids,  as  the  persons  of  greatest  wealth  in  general, 
being  in  the  upper  classes,  had  still  all  the  chief  offices  in 
their  hands ;  the  priesthoods  also  were,  and  long  continued 
to  be,  their  exclusive  possession.  But  noble  birth  ceased 
to  be  a  thing  needful,  and  even  a  Thete  might  now  look  for- 
ward to  attaining  to  some  importance  in  the  state. 

Nowhere  is  Solon's  political  wisdom  more  apparent  than 
in  his  measures  for  checking  precipitation  in  decision  and 
action  —  the  great  fault  of  the  Athenian  character.  It  was 
necessary,  it  appears,  to  give  the  people  the  legislative 
power,  and  the  task  of  the  legislator  was  to  regulate  it.  For 
this  purpose  he  established  a  series  of  councils. 

The  first  was  the  Senate,  (fiovXri,)  or  Council  of  Four 
Hundred.  It  was  composed  of  four  hundred  members  of 
the  first  three  classes,  one  hundred  from  each  phyle.  They 
were  elected  annually  by  lot,  being  thirty  years  of  age,  and 
having  stood  the  requisite  previous  examination.  The  chief 
business  of  this  council  was  to  consider  and  propose  the 
matters  which  were  to  be  brought  before  the  popular  assem- 
bly. The  members,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  had  to  render  an 
account  of  their  conduct  while  in  office. 

The  popular  assembly  (ixxXrjola)  was  regularly  held  on 
certain  days  in  each  month.  Every  citizen  was  required  to 
attend,  and  every  one  might  speak  on  the  subjects  sent  to 
it  by  the  senate.  The  voting  was  usually  by  a  show  of 
hands,  sometimes  by  ballot.  The  matters  brought  before 
the  assembly  were  questions  of  peace,  war,  alliance,  embas- 
sies, laws,  elections  of  magistrates,  matters  of  finance,  etc. 

But  it  was  not  enough  for  a  measure  to  pass  the  senate 
and  assembly  ;  the  cautious  lawgiver  had  provided  a  further 
restraint.  Every  year,  out  of  the  whole  number  of  the  Ec- 
clesiasts,  or  members  of  the  assembly,  six  thousand  of  those 
who  had  attained  the  age  of  thirty  years  were  sworn  in  as 
members  of  the  Helioea,  (^taf«,)*  to  act  as  judges  in  the 

*  This  word  is  of  common  origin  with  the  Spartan  uXia :  both  are 
derived  from  aliw,  uXitw,  to  assemble. 


TIME    OF    THE    TYRANTS.  65 

several  courts  into  which  it  was  divided.  Most  matters  of 
importance,  after  passing  the  assembly,  had  to  undergo  a 
scrutiny  in  a  court  of  the  Heliaea  :  the  magistrates  laid  these 
matters  before  the  courts  of  the  Heliaea,  after  having  pre- 
viously considered  them.  The  Heliasts  were  still  members 
of  the  assembly,  and  they  were  not,  like  the  senators,  re- 
quired to  give  an  account  of  their  conduct  in  office. 

The  court  of  Areiopagus,  (Ares'  Hill,)  though  not  insti- 
tuted by  Solon,  was  invested  by  him  with  a  greater  degree 
of  importance  than  it  had  previously  enjoyed.  Its  members 
were  those  who  had  served  the  office  of  archon  with  credit. 
It  took  cognizance  of  the  moral  conduct  of  the  citizens,  of 
matters  relating  to  religion  and  public  worship ;  and  it 
judged  in  cases  of  murder,  and  of  false  witness  and  bribery, 
etc.  Solon  evidently  intended  it  to  be  the  great  moral  prin- 
ciple of  the  state,  to  stem  the  tide  of  corruption  which  he 
possibly  foresaw. 

To  secure  good  public  officers,  Solon  ordained  that  each 
person,  before  he  entered  on  any  office,  should  be  examined 
by  the  senate  and  a  court  of  the  Heliaea  as  to  his  being  a 
genuine  citizen,  of  sufficient  property,  of  perfect  mind  and 
body,  whether  he  discharged  his  duties  to  the  gods  and  his 
parents,  paid  his  taxes,  and  had  served  in  war.  This  was 
called  the  Dokimasy,  (SovA^acrta.)  During,  and  at  the  end 
of,  his  office,  he  was  subject  to  another  trial,  the  Euthyne, 
(8tdivr]})  respecting  the  mode  in  which  he  exercised  it. 


m 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


TIME     OP    THE    TYRANTS. PEISISTRATUS    AND    HIS    SONS. 

LEGISLATION     OF     CLEISTHENES. WAR     OF      SPARTA     AND 

ARGOS. 

Solon,  having  thus  given  the  Athenians,  not  the  best  of 
possible  constitutions,  but,  as  he  himself  said,  the  best  they 
6*  i 


66  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

could  bear,  resolved  to  quit  his  country  for  a  time.  Like 
Lycurgus,  he  made  the  senate  and  the  people  swear  to  make 
no  alteration  in  the  laws  for  the  space  of  ten  years,  hoping 
that  by  that  time  they  would  have  become  perfectly  inured 
to  the  new  constitution,  and  have  lost  all  desire  of  change. 
He  then  departed,  and  visited  Cyprus  and  Egypt ;  thence 
repaired  to  Ionia ;  and  finally,  it  is  said,  passed  some  time 
at  the  court  of  Croesus,  king  of  Lydia,  at  that  time  the  resort 
of  the  curious  and  the  ingenious  among  the  Greeks. 

The  laws  of  Solon  were,  however,  too  just  and  equitable 
to  give  satisfaction  to  all  parties.  The  lower  orders  had 
looked  forward  to  a  total  abolition  of  debts,  and  a  new  di- 
vision of  the  land,  of  which  each  should  have  a  share  :  the 
Eupatrids  did  not  consider  the  advantages  secured  to  them 
a  sufficient  compensation  for  the  surrender  of  their  ancient 
privileges,  and  of  so  much  of  their  property.  The  result  of 
these  discontents  was  the  establishment  of  a  tyranny. 
(01.  55.) 

Here  we  must  pause,  and  go  back  a  little,  to  show  the  ori- 
gin and  true  nature  of  the  tyrannies  of  these  early  times. 

The  word  tyrant  (tvqocvvoq)  originally  signified  merely 
ruler,  *  and  had  no  bad  •meaning  attached  to  it.  A  tyrant 
was  generally  the  head  of  the  popular  party  in  the  struggle 
against  the  aristocracy,  to  whom  the  sole  authority  was  given 
when  the  victory  had  been  achieved.  Though  there  were 
tyrants  in  various  parts  of  Greece,  and  the  colonies,  during 
the  period  (Ol.  26 — 27)  which  may  be  named  the  Time  of 
the  Tyrants,  they  were  chiefly  to  be  found  in  the  Dorian 
states ;  for  here  the  rule  of  the  nobles,  being  founded  on 
conquest,  was  most  galling  and  oppressive. 

The  first  tyrant  of  whom  we  hear  was  Orthagoras  of 
Sicyon,  f  (01.  26,)  whose  family  held  the  tyranny  for  a  cen- 

*  It  is  perhaps  derived  from  rrgaoc,  a  castle,  or  it  may  be  the  same 
with  Koiqavoq,  xvQiog,  from  xuqcc,  head.     Saran  is  "  a  lord  "  in  Hebrew. 

t  Arist.  Pol.  v.  9.  Goettling.  We  are  told  that  Sicyon  was  the 
oldest  monarchy  in  Greece  —  a  thing  of  which  we  have  no  proof,  and 
which,  perhaps,  owes  ite  origin  to  the  fact  stated  in  the  text. 


TIME    OF    THE    TYRANTS.  67 

tury,  because  they  respected  the  laws  and  governed  with 
mildness  and  equity.  Orthagoras,  whom  the  Dorian  aristo- 
crats called  a  cook,  belonged  to  the  ^Egialians,  an  Achaean 
tribe,  which  enjoyed  an  equality  of  rights  with  the  three 
Dorian  tribes  in  Sicyon.  His  son  or  grandson  Myron  was 
victor  in  the  chariot-race  at  Olympia,  (Ol.  33,)  where  he 
built  a  treasury,  lined  with  Tartessian  brass,  and  having 
Doric  and  Ionic  columns.  Cleisthenes,  the  last  of  the  family, 
was  distinguished  in  war  ;  he  commanded,  in  conjunction 
with  Eurylochus,  the  Thessalian  Aleuad,  the  army  of  the 
Amphictyons  in  the  Crissaean  war ;  and  he  was  at  constant 
enmity  with  the  Argives,  his  Dorian  neighbors.  Out  of 
spite  to  them,  he  suppressed  the  worship  of  the  Argive  hero- 
king  Adrastus  at  Sicyon,  and  forbade  the  rhapsodists  to 
recite  the  Homeric  poems,  because  they  contained  the 
praises  of  Argos,  or  rather  of  the  aristocratic  principle.  * 
He  attempted  to  destroy  the  Dorian  principle  completely,  by 
forcing  the  Dorian  tribes  to  cultivate  the  land  like  the  rest 
of  the  people.  Cleisthenes  was,  like  Myron,  a  victor  in  the 
public  games,  and  he  lived  in  great  magnificence. 

This  prince  had  an  only  daughter,  named  Agariste,  whom 
he  wished  to  see  married  to  the  best  of  the  Greeks  :  for  this 
purpose,  when  he  won  the  prize  at  Olympia,  (Ol.  49,  l,)»iie 
caused  proclamation  to  be  made,  inviting  those  who  deemed 
themselves  worthy  to  be  his  son-in-law  to  repair  to  Sicyon 
within  sixty  days.  The  noblest  youths  of  Greece  and  the 
Italian  colonies  appeared  at  his  residence  ;  and  after  having 
detained  them  a  year,  making  every  trial  of  them,  he  be- 
stowed the  hand  of  Agariste  on  Megacles,  the  son  of  Alc- 
mceon,  the  Athenian. t  Cleisthenes  appears  to  have  had  no 
son,  and  the  tyranny  expired  with  him. 

At  Corinth,  the  Haracleid  family  of  the  Bacchiads  had 
converted  the  government  into  an  oligarchy,  by  confining 
all  public  offices  to  themselves.  They  were  therefore  hated  ; 
and  Cypselus,  a  man  not  of  Doric  origin,  but  related  to  them 

*  Herod,  v.  67.  t  Id.  vi.  126-130. 


68  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

on  the  mother's  side,  contrived,  by  placing  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  lower  orders,  to  eject  them  from  Corinth.*  He  now 
(Ol.  30)  became  tyrant :  his  rule  was,  like  that  of  the 
tyrants  of  Sicyon,  mild  and  just;  he  had  no  guards;  he 
treated  the  people  with  great  consideration,  adorned  the 
city  with  stately  buildings,  and  founded  colonies  abroad. 
After  a  peaceful  reign  of  thirty  years,  he  left  his  power  to  his 
son  Periander. 

Periander  ruled  at  first  with  still  greater  mildness  than  his 
father.  His  sway,  however,  gradually  became  more  rigor- 
ous; he  surrounded  himself  with  guards;  he  forbade  the  use 
of  the  public  meals,  and  in  every  thing  sought  to  root  out  the 
Dorian  principle.  He  was  a  rigid  guardian  of  the  public 
morals,  was  brave  in  war  and  wise  in  council,  and  had  a 
taste  for  elegance  and  splendor.  He  maintained  an  inti- 
macy with  the  monarchs  of  Lydia  and  Egypt,  and,  like  his 
father,  planted  colonies  along  the  coast  of  Illyria.  Periander 
was  succeeded  by  his  son  Psammitichus,  with  whom  the  tyr- 
anny ended,  (Ol.  49,  3,)  after  a  duration  of  about  seventy- 
four  years.t 

Procles,  tyrant  of  Epidaurus  and  ^Egina,  was  father-in-law 
to  Periander ;  and  Megara  was  ruled  at  this  time  by  The- 
agenes,  whose  daughter  was  married  to  the  Athenian  Cylon. 
Theagenes  had  attained  to  power,  like  the  others,  by  head- 
ing the  people  against  the  aristocracy,  and  like  them  he  grat- 
ified the  people  by  raising  works  of  utility  and  ornament. 
After  the  failure  of  Cylon  at  Athens,  Theagenes  was  driven 
from  Megara,  and  a  wild  democracy  established.  J 

We  thus  see  that  Argos  and  Sparta  alone,  of  the  Dorian 
states,  did  not  fall  under  the  rule  of  tyrants.  The  tyranny 
in  Greece  was  in  fact  a  struggle  against  the  rigid  Dorian 
principle :  the  time  during  which  the  Tyrants  ruled  was  one 
of  rapid  advance  in  the  career  of  improvement :  they  were 
all  friends  of  the  arts,  and  maintained  relations  with  distant 

*  Herod  v.  92. 

t  Herod,  ut  supra.     Arist.,  ut  supra. 

t  Arist.  Pol.  v.  4;  Rhet.  i.  2;  Plut.  Q.  G.  18. 


PEISISTRATUS    AND    HIS    SONS.  69 

and  more  cultivated  regions;  and  hence  luxury  and  a  taste 
for  elegance  were  diffused  throughout  Hellas.  When  we 
consider  that  most  of  the  Grecian  colonies  in  Asia  and  Italy 
were  at  this  time  ruled  by  tyrants,  and  that  they  kept  up  a 
close  connection  and  intercourse  with  each  other,  and  see, 
as  we  presently  shall,  the  relations  of  the  Ionians  with  the 
East,  we  may  discern  the  progress  of  refinement,  and  mark 
its  influence  in  Greece. 

The  aristocratic  Spartans  were  the  declared  foes  of  the 
tyrants,  and  they  are  said  to  have  overthrown  several  of 
them.  The  people,  in  most  places  oppressed  by  the  nobles, 
and  taught  by  poetry  the  mildness  of  the  regal  rule  in  old 
times,  looked  forward  with  hope  to  the  establishment  of  a 
tyranny  in  their  cities. 

We  are  now  to  witness  the  establishment  of  this  form  of 
dominion  in  Attica.* 

The  parties  into  which  the  people  of  Attica  were  divided, 
when  Solon  undertook  the  regulation  of  the  state,  were 
named,  the  Pediaeans,  (IlediaToi,)  the  Paralians,  (IT&galoi,) 
and  the  Hyperacrians  (c  YneQuxgioi.)  Of  these,  the  first,  the 
people  of  the  interior  or  plain-country,  favored  the  old  aris- 
tocratic system;  the  Paralians,  or  people  of  the  coast  round 
by  Cape  Sunion,f  were  for  a  medium ;  the  Hyperacrians,  or 
people  of  Parnes  and  the  hills  to  the  north,  were  for  a 
democracy.  $ 

The  Pediaeans  were  headed  by  a  nobleman  named  Ly- 
curgus;  the  Paralians  by  Megacles,  the  son-in-law  of  Cleis- 
thenes  of  Sicyon :  Peisistratus,  a  man  descended  from  the 
Codrids,  and  related  to  Solon,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of 
the  Hyperacrians,  who  were  mostly  Thetes.  He  trod  the 
usual  path  by  which  the  demagogue  rises  to  power,  exagger- 

*  Herod,  i.  59—64.  t  Thuc.  ii.  55. 

t  Plut.  Solon,  13.  As  the  chief  scene  of  contest  between  the  parties 
was  the  city  of  Athens,  and  the  strength  of  the  Hyperacrian  party,  as 
will  appear,  lay  there,  these  are  probably  to  be  taken  as  mere  party 
denominations  derived  from  places,  like  Ghibellines,  Girondists,  and 
such  like. 


70  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

ating  the  evils  to  which  the  people  are  subject,  and  repre- 
senting himself  as  the  only  person  anxious  to  alleviate  them. 
Noble  birth  is  always  of  weight  with  the  people :  Peisistra- 
tus  had,  moreover,  distinguished  himself  in  the  war  against 
the  Megarians,  and  taken  their  port  of  Nisaea.  Not  content 
with  these  advantages,  he  had,  it  is  said,  recourse  to  a  very 
disgraceful  stratagem :  one  day  he  gave  himself  and  his 
mules  several  wounds,  and  in  that  condition  drove  into  the 
market,  and  told  the  people  that  he  had  barely  escaped  with 
life  from  his  and  their  enemies,  who  had  fallen  on  him  as  he 
was  going  into  the  country.  The  people,  to  protect  their 
benefactor,  assigned  him  a  guard  of  clubmen,  to  attend  him 
wherever  he  went.  He  soon  then  made  himself  master  of 
the  Acropolis,  and  absolute  ruler  of  the  city  ;  but  he  gov- 
erned with  justice,  and  did  not  disturb  the  existing  laws. 

The  rival  factions  soon  combined,  and  drove  him  from  the 
city ;  but  ere  long,  Megacles,  being  worsted  in  a  contest  with 
his  rival,  sent  to  Peisistratus,  offering  to  reinstate  him  in 
the  tyranny,  if  he  would  engage  to  espouse  his  daughter. 
This  offer  was  readily  accepted,  and  Peisistratus  returned  to 
Athens.  On  this  occasion,  it  is  said,  his  entrance  into  the 
city  was  preceded  by  a  woman  of  lofty  stature,  habited  like 
the  goddess  Pallas  Athena,  in  full  armor,  and  standing  in  a 
chariot ;  and  heralds  going  before  cried  to  the  Athenians  to 
receive  Peisistratus,  whom  the  goddess  herself  was  conduct- 
ing to  her  Acropolis.* 

Megacles,  finding  that  Perisistratus  did  not  act  as  he 
should  to  his  daughter,  drove  him  away  again.  He  retired 
to  Eretria  in  Eubcea,  where  he  remained  ten  years,  collect- 
ing the  means  of  recovering  the  tyranny.  The  Thebans 
and  others  sent  him  money ;  Lygdamis,  who  aspired  to  the 

*  Herodotus  wonders  at  the  folly  of  this :  he  supposes  the  people 
took  her  for  the  goddess  herself;  but  it  was  probably  intended  and  un- 
derstood to  be  nothing  more  than  a  symbolical  action :  it  may,  how- 
ever, have  been  expected  that  fame  would,  as  usual,  magnify  it  in  the 
ears  of  the  country-people.  Perhaps,  as  the  name  of  the  woman  was 
Phye,  (Size,)  the  whole  may  be  only  a  fiction. 


PEISISTRATUS    AND    HIS    SONS.  71 

tyranny  in  his  native  isle  of  Naxos,  brought  men  and  money; 
hired  troops  came  from  Argos,  and  in  the  eleventh  year  he 
passed  over  and  encamped  at  Marathon.  His  friends  from 
the  city  and  country  flocked  to  him.  His  enemies  advanced 
to  engage  him ;  but,  falling  on  them  by  surprise,  he  gave  them 
a  defeat,  and  entered  Athens  for  the  third  time.  The  Alc- 
maeonids  and  some  other  families  left  the  country:  he 
obliged  such  as  remained  to  give  their  children  as  hostages, 
whom  he  placed  in  Naxos,  which  he  had  reduced  under  the 
dominion  of  his  friend  Lygdamis.  The  wealth  which  he 
derived  from  his  estates  in  Eubcea,  and  from  his  mines  on 
the  Strymon  in  Thrace,  enabled  him  to  gratify  the  people 
with  gifts,  and  to  adorn  the  city.  During  the  ten  years  he 
now  ruled  Athens,  his  sway  was  mild,  and  he  left  his  do- 
minion to  his  sons  Hippias,  Hipparchus,  and  Thessalus. 
(Ol.  63,  1.) 

These  princes  ruled  with  still  greater  lenity  than  their 
father  had  done.  They  reduced  the  land-tax,  which  he  had 
imposed,  from  a  tenth  to  a  twentieth ;  they  were  easy  of  ac- 
cess to  all,  and  they  sought  to  diffuse  knowledge  among  the 
people.  But  an  act  of  private  revenge  altered  the  entire 
face  of  things  in  Athens.* 

There  was  an  Athenian  of  moderate  fortune,  named  Aris- 
togeiton,  who,  according  to  the  custom  in  Greece,  had  se- 
lected as  the  object  of  his  affection  a  beautiful  youth,  named 
Harmodius,  of  the  same  rank  in  life  as  himself.  Hippar- 
chus was  taken  with  the  beauty  of  Harmodius ;  but  the  youth 
rejected  his  advances.  Aristogeiton,  however,  resolved  to 
be  avenged ;  and  as  Hipparchus  took  an  opportunity  of  in- 
sulting Harmodius,  by  preventing  his  sister  from  bearing  a 
part  in  a  religious  procession,  he  readily  entered  into  the 
project  of  his  friend.  Others,  actuated  by  various  causes, 
engaged  in  their  plans ;  and  it  was  agreed  to  fall  on  and 
murder  the  tyrants  at  the  festival  of  the  Panathenaea,  when, 
the  persons  who  formed  the  pomp  or  procession  being  clad 

*  Thucyd.  vi.  54—59. 


72 


HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 


in  armor,  they  might  accomplish  their  design  the  more 
easily. 

On  the  day  of  the  feast,  Hippias  marshalled  the  procession 
in  the  Cerameicus,  outside  of  the  city.  Harmodius  and  his 
friend  were  ready  with  their  daggers ;  but  seeing  one  of  the 
conspirators  talking  familiarly  with  him,  they  feared  they 
were  betrayed,  and,  being  resolved  that  Hipparchus  should 
not  escape,  they  went  back  into  the  city,  and  meeting  him 
at  the  place  named  the  Leocorion,  they  fell  on  and  slew 
him.  His  guards  despatched  Harmodius  on  the  spot :  Aris- 
togeiton  escaped  for  the  moment,  but  he  was  slain  after  a 
stout  resistance.  When  Hippias  heard  what  had  happened, 
he  ordered  those  who  were  to  form  the  pomp  to  retire  to  a 
certain  spot  without  arms.  He  then  had  them  searched, 
and  as  they  were  to  go  in  procession  bearing  only  spear  and 
shield,  he  knew  that  all  who  had  daggers  were  in  the  con- 
spiracy, and  dealt  with  them  accordingly.     (01.  66,  3.) 

The  conduct  of  Hippias  now  changed  ;  he  became  sus- 
picious and  cruel ;  he  put  several  citizens  to  death  ;  and,  to 
strengthen  himself  by  foreign  connections,  he  gave  his 
daughter  in  marriage  to  the  son  of  the  tyrant  of  Lampsacus, 
who  was  in  great  favor  at  the  court  of  Persia. 

Meantime,  the  rigorous  measures  which  Hippias  pursued 
augmented  the  number  of  the  discontented ;  and  the  foes  of  his 
family,  the  AlcmaBonids,  were  steadily  on  the  watch  to  over- 
turn his  power.  This  family  was  one  of  the  most  wealthy 
in  Greece,  and  they  had  fixed  themselves  in  a  strong  posi- 
tion at  a  place  named  Leipsydrion,  on  the  southern  declivity 
of  Mount  Parnes ;  but  they  did  not  feel  themselves  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  attack  the  tyrant.  Just  at  this  time,  the 
Amphictyons  proposed  to  rebuild  the  temple  at  Delphi :  the 
Alcmseonids  got  the  contract,  and  though  they  were  only 
bound  to  build  it  of  common  sandstone,  they,  at  their  own 
expense,  fronted  it  with  Parian  marble.  They,  moreover,  it 
is  said,  gained  the  Pythia  by  presents ;  and  whenever  the 
Spartans  came  to  consult  the  oracle,  she  enjoined  them  to 
give  liberty  to  Athens.     Moved  by  these  repeated  injunc- 


LEGISLATION    OF    CLEISTHENES.  73 

tions  of  the  god,  the  Spartans  collected  an  army,  chiefly  of 
mercenaries,  and  putting  it  under  the  command  of  a  Spar- 
tan named  Anchimolius,  sent  it  by  sea  to  Attica,  where  it 
landed  at  Phaleron,  close  by  Athens.  Hippias  had  applied 
to  his  allies  in  Thessaly  for  aid,  and  a  body  of  one  thousand 
Thessalian  horse  was  now  arrived :  these  fell  on  and  routed 
the  invaders,  and  the  Spartan  leader  himself  was  among  the 
slain.* 

The  Spartans  collected  another  larger  army,  and  sent  it, 
under  the  command  of  Cleomenes,  one  of  their  kings,  over- 
land to  Attica.  The  Thessalian  horse  who  came  to  oppose 
them  were  defeated  and  went  home.  Cleomenes  marched 
to  Athens,  and  being  joined  by  those  who  were  ill  affected 
to  the  Peisistratids,  besieged  them  in  the  Pelasgian  wall, 
which  surrounded  the  Acropolis.  As  they  had  abundance 
of  provisions,  and  the  Spartans  knew  little  of  sieges,  Cle- 
omenes was  about  to  lead  home  his  army,  when  a  lucky 
chance  put  him  in  possession  of  their  children,  whom  they 
were  sending  out  of  the  country.  Hippias,  to  recover  his 
children,  agreed  to  evacuate  Attica  within  five  days.  He 
retired  to  Sigeion  (Sigeum)  in  the  Troas,  and  the  tyranny 
thus  ended,  after  a  duration  of  thirty-six  years.t     (Ol.  67,  3.) 

The  Alcmaeonids  and  Cleomenes,  we  may  thus  see,  were 
in  reality  those  who  freed  Athens ;  and  never  was  fame  more 
undeserved  than  that  which  has  been  bestowed  on  Har- 
modius  and  Aristogeiton.  But  time  is  sure  to  do  jus- 
tice to  all. 

The  tyranny  was  now  ended;  but  a  struggle  still  remained 
between  the  aristocratic  and  the  democratic  principles. 
The  advocates  of  the  former  were  headed  by  a  man  of  noble 
birth,  named  Isagoras,  the  friend  of  Cleomenes.  Cleisthenes 
the  Alcmseonid,  his  rival  for  power,  either  from  revenge,  \ 

*  Herod,  v.  62,  63.  I  Id.  v.  64,  65. 

t  This  was  his  motive,  in  Niebuhr's  opinion.  u  Cleisthenes,  one  of 
the  nobles,"  says  he,  "  from  a  grudge  against  his  own  order,  by  trans- 
forming the  tribes,  levelled  the  distinctions  of  ranks,  and  introduced  an 
equality,  which  led  to  a  frantic  democracy  ;  Athens  being  unaccounta- 

7  f 


74  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

love  of  justice,  or  family  principle,  —  for  he  was  grandson 
of  the  tyrant  of  Sicyon,  —  took  the  popular  side,  and  when 
archon,  made  a  great  change  in  the  constitution.  Isagoras 
applied  to  Cleomenes,  and  a  herald  came  from  Sparta  re- 
quiring the  expulsion  of  the  piacular,  (frayfoF,)  that  is,  those 
on  whom  the  guilt  of  the  murder  of  the  Cylonians  lay. 
Cleisthenes,  as  an  Alcmoeonid,  was  forced  to  retire;  and 
Cleomenes,  coming  to  Athens,  expelled  seven  hundred  per- 
sons, whom  Isagoras  pointed  out  as  favorable  to  the  new 
constitution,  dissolved  the  senate,  and  put  the  government 
into  the  hands  of  three  hundred  of  the  partisans  of  Isagoras. 
The  people,  however,  rose ;  Cleomenes,  Isagoras,  and  their 
friends,  sought  refuge  on  the  Acropolis,  whence,  after  a  siege 
of  two  days,  Isagoras  and  the  Lacedaemonians  were  allowed 
to  depart :  the  remainder  were  put  to  death.  Cleisthenes 
and  the  seven  hundred  were  immediately  recalled,  and,  a 
war  with  Sparta  being  apprehended,  envoys  were  sent  to  the 
Persian  governor  of  Lydia  to  ask  aid  :  assistance  was  offered 
on  condition  of  the  Athenians  giving  earth  and  water,  that 
is,  becoming  vassals  to  the  Persian  king.  The  envoys  as- 
sented ;  but  they  were  severely  reprimanded  for  it  when  they 
returned  home.*     (Ol.  68,  1.) 

Cleomenes,  meantime,  bent  on  revenge,  resolved  to  estab- 
lish a  tyranny  in  the  person  of  Isagoras,  and  having  assem- 
bled an  army  of  the  Peloponnesian  confederates,  he  led  them 
into  Attica ;  the  Thebans  and  the  Chalcidians  of  Euboea 
invaded,  in  concert  with  him,  the  parts  of  Attica  nearest  to 
them.  The  Athenians  advanced  to  oppose  the  Peloponne- 
sians,  who  were  now  in  the  plain  of  Eleusis ;  but  discord  had 
arisen  among  the  latter  :  the  Corinthians,  perceiving  Cleom- 

• 
bly  preserved  by  fortune  from  falling  under  the  dominion  of  tyrants/' 
(Hist,  of  Rome,  i.  477.)  It  is  the  fate,  we  believe,  of  every  free  state, 
in  its  transition  to  democracy,  to  have  its  Cleisthenes,  members  of  the 
aristocracy,  who,  to  gratify  their  spleen,  pride,  vanity,  avarice,  or  other 
mean  passions,  become  ready  and  active  instruments  in  destroying  the 
influence  and  power  of  their  order  in  the  state. 

*  Herod,  v.  6C,  70—73. 


LEGISLATION    OF    CLEISTHENES.  75 

enes'  real  object,  retired :  his  colleague  Demaratus  opposed 
his  design ;  the  rest  of  the  confederates  broke  up  and  went 
home.  The  Athenians,  thus  freed  from  the  Peloponnesians, 
turned  their  arms  against  the  Chalcidians.  They  defeated 
at  the  Euripus  the  Thebans,  who  were  coming  to  their  aid, 
passed  the  same  day  over  to  Euboea,  and  overcame  the  Chal- 
cidians, and  took  from  their  wealthy  men  (Innofioicu')  four 
thousand  lots  of  land  for  colonists.  The  Thebans  now,  in 
obedience  to  the  oracle,  looked  for  aid  to  the  ^ginetes, 
who,  having  an  old  ground  of  quarrel  with  the  Athenians, 
made  descents  on  and  ravaged  the  sea-coast  of  Attica.* 

iEgina,  we  must  observe,  was  at  this  time  a  state  of  great, 
importance  in  Greece.  Its  favorable  situation  in  the  Sa- 
ronic  Gulf  made  its  people,  like  the  Phoenicians  of  old  times, 
and  the  Hydraotes  of  the  present  day,  turn  their  thoughts  to 
trade  and  navigation.  We  are  told  that  even  in  the  second 
century  before  the  Olympiads  began,  the  merchants  of  JEgi- 
na,  being  excluded  by  the  jealousy  of  their  neighbors  from 
access  to  the  parts  of  Arcadia  nearest  to  them,  used  to  sail 
round  to  Cyllene  in  Elis,  and  putting  their  goods  on  wagons, 
convey  them  into  the  heart  of  Arcadia.f  The  population, 
crowded  on  their  little  isle  of  only  two  hundred  stadia  in 
circuit,  is  said  to  have  been  enormous;  the  slaves  alone 
being  reckoned  at  forty-seven  myriads !  J  Its  trade  at  this 
time  extended  to  the  Euxine,  and  to  all  points  of  the  Med- 
iterranean. But  its  power,  like  that  of  all  states  without 
agriculture,  was  but  transient. 

The  Spartans,  seeing  the  successes  of  the  Athenians, 
began  to  fear  that  their  power  might  increase  too  rapidly, 
and  that  they  might  in  time  become  their  rivals ;  and  they 
felt  that  they  had  erred  in  expelling  Hippias.  They  there- 
fore sent  for  him,  with  the  design  of  restoring  him.  Having 
assembled  the  deputies  of  the  confederates,  they  declared 
that,  deceived  by  false   oracles,  they  had  been  led   to  act 

*  Herod,  v.  74—80.  t  Paus.  viii.  5,  8. 

t  Athenaeus  vi.  20,  from  Aristotle's  Polity  of  the  Mgin&tes.  A  myriad 
is  10,000  :  the  exaggeration  is  palpable. 


76  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

wrong  and  expel  their  friends,  but  that  now  they  wished  to 
amend  their  error.  Then  Sosicles,  the  Corinthian  deputy, 
rose,  and  drawing  a  highly-colored  picture  of  the  evil  deeds 
of  the  Cypselids  in  his  native  city,  declared  that  the  Corinth- 
ians would  have  no  hand  in  the  setting-up  of  a  tyranny. 
The  other  deputies  cried  out  to  the  same  effect,  and  the 
Spartans  were  obliged  to  give  up  their  project  and  dismiss 
Hippias,  who  returned  to  Asia,  placing  all  his  hopes  now  in 
the  Persian  power.* 

Before  we  quit  Athens,  we  will  take  a  slight  view  of  the 
changes  made  in  the  constitution  by  Cleisthenes 

The  Solonian  constitution  was,  as  we  have  seen,  in  its 
substance  aristocratic;  the  new  one  tended  much  more  to 
democracy.  To  effect  the  change,  it  was  necessary  to  break 
up  the  existing  societies  and  relations  in  the  state.  Accord- 
ingly, Cleisthenes  divided  the  people  into  ten  instead  of  four 
tribes:  the phratries  and  houses  were  allowed  to  remain,  but 
their  connection  with  the  phyles  ceased.  The  phyles  were 
divided  into  denies,  (<%mh;)  over  each  phyle  was  its  Phylarch; 
over  each  deme  its  Demarch.  The  senate  was  augmented 
to  five  hundred  members,  fifty  from  each  phyle.  The 
number  of  public  officers  was  in  general  augmented ;  ten, 
that  of  the  phyles,  becoming  the  prevailing  number.  The 
archontate  was  still  confined  to  the  Pentecosiomedimnians ; 
but  the  archons  were  now,  like  the  rest,  appointed  by  lot. 

The  ostracism  t  is  ascribed  to  Cleisthenes.  It  was  designed 
as  a  safeguard  against  tyranny;  but  it  became  the  mere  in- 
strument of  popular  envy  and  party  spirit.  Any  citizen, 
whose  continuance  in  Attica  a  majority  of  six  thousand 
votes  pronounced  to  be  dangerous  to  the  state,  was  ostra- 
cised, and  obliged  to  quit  the  country  for  ten  years. 

We  are  now  to  leave  Greece  for  a  time ;  but  ere  we  depart, 
we  must  attend  to  the  progress  of  hostilities  between  Sparta 
and  Argos. 

*  Herod,  v.  90—94. 

t  So  called  from  oorqaxov,  a  potsherd,  with  which  the  votes  were 
given. 


WAR    OF    SPARTA    AND    ARGOS.  77 

The  Spartans  had  gradually  deprived  the  Argives  of  the 
whole  coast  of  the  Myrtoan  Sea.  The  district  of  Thyrea, 
on  the  confines  of  Laconia,  being  ravaged  by  the  Spartans, 
(01.  59,  3,)  the  Argives  came  in  arms  to  repel  them.  As 
the  right  to  the  possession  of  Thyrea  was  a  subject  of  dis- 
pute between  the  two  nations,  it  was  now  agreed  to  select 
three  hundred  men  on  each  side  to  fight  on  the  part  of  their 
respective  countries ;  and  the  disputed  district  to  be  the 
property  of  those  whose  champions  were  victorious.  The 
armies  retired,  and  the  six  hundred  champions  fought  till  all 
were  slain  but  three —  two  Argives  and  one  Spartan.  It  was 
now  night,  and  the  Argives  ran  home  with  the  news  of  their 
victory ;  but  the  Spartan,  whose  name  was  Othryades, 
stripped  the  bodies  of  the  slain  Argives,  and  having  carried 
their  arms  to  his  camp,  remained  there.  Next  morning,  the 
two  armies  returned  to  the  spot.  The  Argives  claimed  the 
victory,  because  a  greater  number  of  their  men  had  sur- 
vived ;  the  Spartans,  because  their  champion  had  kept  the 
field.  From  words  they  proceeded  to  arms ;  and  the  Lace- 
daemonians were  victorious.  Othryades,  ashamed  to  have 
survived  his  companions,  slew  himself  after  the  battle.* 

Some  years  afterwards,  (01.  64,  1,)  Cleomenes,  the  Spartan 
king,  being  told  by  the  oracle  that  he  should  take  Argos,  led 
an  army  to  the  banks  of  the  Erasinus.  The  sacrifices,  pre- 
vious to  crossing,  not  proving  favorable,  he  returned  to 
Thyrea,  and  passed  over  by  sea  to  Nauplia  and  Tiryns.  The 
Argives  came  and  took  their  station  opposite  him  at  Tiryns. 
As  an  oracle  menaced  them  with  defeat  by  stratagem,  they 
adopted  the  expedient  of  doing  every  thing  they  heard  the 
herald  proclaiming  to  the  Lacedaemonians.  Cleomenes,  dis- 
covering this,  directed  his  men,  when  they  heard  the  herald 
give  the  word  for  breakfast,  to  seize  their  arms  and  advance 
against  the  enemy.  The  Argives,  being  thus  attacked  when 
at  their  meal,  were  routed  with  great  loss,  and  the  survivors 
fled  to  the  sacred  grove  of  the  hero  Argos.     Cleomenes,  who 

*  Herod,  i.  82 


78  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

had  learned  their  names  from  deserters,  sent  in  a  herald, 
inviting  them  to  come  out,  saying  he  had  received  the 
usual  ransom  of  two  minas  each.  About  fifty  had  come  out, 
as  he  summoned  them  by  name,  and  had  been  put  to  death, 
when  one  of  those  in  the  grove  climbed  a  tree  and  saw  their 
fate.  As  no  more  would  leave  it,  Cleomenes  made  the 
Helots  pile  wood  round  the  grove,  and  setting  fire  to  the 
wood,  he  burned  the  grove  and  all  the  Argives  who  were  in 
it.  While  it  was  burning,  he  asked  one  of  the  deserters  to 
what  god  it  belonged  :  on  being  told  to  Argos,  he  cried 
out  that  the  god  had  deceived  him,  and  without  attacking 
the  town,  now  void  of  defenders,  he  led  his  army  back  to 
Sparta.* 

Not  less  than  six  thousand  Dorian  Argives,  it  is  said,  per- 
ished on  this  occasion ;  and  the  Dorians  were  so  enfeebled 
by  it,  that  the  Gymnesians,  as  the  serfs  (answering  to  the  He- 
lots) were  called  at  Argos,  were  enabled  to  seize  the  govern- 
rnent,  which  they  held  till  the  sons  of  the  slaughtered  Dori- 
ans were  grown  up,  who  drove  them  to  Tiryns,  and,  after  an 
obstinate  contest,  succeeded  in  reducing  or  expelling  them.f 


CHAPTER  IX. 


KINGDOM    OF    LYDIA.  PERSIA. INVASION    OF     SCYTHIA     BY 

DARIUS.  REVOLT  OF  THE  ASIATIC    GREEKS. 

The  expulsion  of  the  Peisistratids  gave  occasion  to  the 
political  relations  between  Greece  and  the  East,  which  have 
so  much  influence  on  the  future  Grecian  history. 

The  Grecian  colonies  on* the  coast  of  Asia  early  rose  to 
wealth  by  means  of  trade  and  manufactures.     Though  we 

*  Herod,  vi.  76—80.  t  Id.  vi.  83.  vii.  J 48.  Arist.  Pol.  v.  2. 


KINGDOM    OF    LYDIA.  79 

have  not  the  means  of  tracing  their  commerce,  we  know 
that  it  was  considerable,  with  the  mother  country,  with 
Italy,  and  at  length  Spain,  with  Phoenicia  and  the  interior 
of  Asia,  whence  the  productions  of  India  passed  to  Greece. 
The  Milesians,  who  had  fine  woollen  manufactures,  extend- 
ed their  commerce  to  the  Euxine,  on  all  sides  of  which 
they  founded  factories,  and  exchanged  their  manufactures 
and  other  goods  with  the  Scythians  and  the  neighboring 
peoples,  for  slaves,  wool,  raw  hides,  bees-wax,  flax,  hemp, 
pitch,  etc.  There  is  even  reason  to  suppose  that,  by  means 
of  caravans,  their  traders  bartered  their  wares  not  far  from 
the  confines  of  China.* 

The  facility  with  which  the  Greeks  formed  their  first 
establishments  on  the  coast  of  Asia,  leads  to  the  supposi- 
tion that  there  was  no  extensive  monarchy  in  the  vicinity 
at  that  time.  But  while  they  were  advancing  in  wealth 
and  prosperity,  a  powerful  monarchy  formed  itself  in  Lydia, 
of  which  the  capital  was  Sardes,  a  city  at  the  foot  of  Mount 
Tmolus,  about  four  hundred  stadia  from  the  sea.  Histo- 
rians tell  of  three  dynasties  of  kings  of  Lydia ;  the  Atyades, 
named  from  their  god  Atys ;  the  Heracleids,  or  rather  San- 
donids,  from  a  god  or  hero  Sandon,  whom  the  Greeks  iden- 
tified with  their  own  Hercules ;  the  Mermnads,  the  origin 
of  whose  name  is  doubtful. f  Of  these  the  two  first  are 
mythic  ;  the  third  belongs  to  history. 

Gyges,  the  first  of  this  dynasty,  (Ol.  16,)  turned  his 
arms  against  the  Ionian  cities  on  the  coast.  During  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half,  the  efforts  of  the  Lydian  monarchs  to  re- 
duce these  states  were  unavailing.  At  length,  (Ol.  55,)  the 
celebrated  Croesus  mounted  the  throne  of  Lydia ;  and  he 
made  all  Asia  this  side  of  the  River  Halys  (Lycia  and  Ci- 
licia  excepted)  acknowledge  his  dominion.  The  iEolian, 
Ionian,  and  Dorian  cities  of  the  coast  all  paid  him  tribute; 
but,  according  to  the  usual  rule  of  Eastern  conquerors,  he 

*  Volcker  (Myth.  Geographic  der  Griechen  und  ROmer,  ch.  viii.)  traces 
the  route  to  the  foot  of  the  Altai  Mountains, 
t  Herod,  i.  7. 


80  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

meddled  not  with  their  political  institutions,  and  they  might 
deem  themselves  fortunate  in  being  insured  against  war  by 
the  payment  of  an  annual  sum  of  money.  Croesus,  more- 
over, cultivated  the  friendship  of  the  European  Greeks. 

The  Lydian  monarchs,  from  the  time  of  Gyges,  had  been 
benefactors  of  the  Delphic  oracle ;  but  the  offerings  of  Croesus 
far  exceeded  in  number  and  value  those  of  his  predeces- 
sors. The  splendid  court  of  Sardes  was  the  resort  of  the 
sages  and  the  nobles  of  Greece  ;  and  the  felicity  of  the  king 
of  Lydia  seemed  complete,  when  a  storm  from  the  East 
burst  over  his  realm  and  levelled  all  its  glories.* 

In  the  country  east  and  south  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  a 
powerful  and  civilized  empire  had  long  existed.  The  peo- 
ple named  the  Medes  had  been  for  some  time  at  the  head 
of  it ;  but  in  the  time  of  Croesus,  king  of  Lydia,  the  Persians, 
who  dwelt,  subject  to  the  Medes,  partly  stationary,  partly 
nomadic,  in  the  mountains  bordering  on  the  Persian  Gulf, 
rose  in  arms  under  their  native  prince  Cyrus,  and  wrested 
the  supreme  power  from  the  hands  of  the  Medes.  The 
change  was  little  more  than  a  change  of  dynasty ;  t  but,  as 
is  usually  the  case,  it  was  productive  of  an  increase  of  mar- 
tial energy.  The  River  Halys  had  been  the  boundary  be- 
tween Median  and  Lydian  dominion :  there  had,  moreover, 
been  affinity  between  the  Lydian  and  Median  monarchs ; 
a  war  between  Cyrus  and  Croesus  therefore  naturally  fol- 
lowed. 

Croesus,  having  assembled  an  army,  crossed  the  Halys, 
and  wasted  the  country  beyond  it.  Cyrus  hastened  to  en- 
gage him.     The  armies  encountered  in  the  Pterian  Plain,  J 


*  Herod,  i.  26 — 29.  The  remainder  of  this  writer's  First  Book  con- 
tains the  history  of  Croesus  and  Cyrus. 

t  There  is,  perhaps,  too  much  importance  given  to  this  event  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  It  is  probable  that  the  change  was  not  in  reality 
much  greater  than  what  has  occurred  almost  in  our  own  days  in  Persia. 
The  Kajers,  who  now  govern  there,  are  a  Turkish  tribe,  who  won  the 
throne  from  the  Zends,  a  native  Persian  tribe. 

t  On  this  plain  Pompeius  defeated  Mithridates ;  Timoor  Bayazeed 


PERSIA.  81 

south  of  Sinope,  and  victory  remained  with  neither.  Croe- 
sus, finding  his  troops  inferior  in  number  to  those  of  the 
Persian  monarch,  led  them  back  to  Sardes.  He  dismissed 
the  Greeks  and  other  strangers  who  were  in  his  service, 
and  wrote  pressing  letters  to  the  kings  of  Babylon  and 
Egypt,  and  to  the  Lacedaemonians,  with  all  of  whom  he  was 
in  alliance,  urging  them  to  send  him  troops  against  the 
ensuing  spring,  when  he  intended  again  to  take  the  field. 
But  Cyrus,  on  learning  that  Croesus  had  dismissed  his  army, 
resolved  to  push  on  for  Sardes,  and  take  him  unprepared. 
He  soon  appeared  before  that  city.  Crcesus  led  his  valiant 
Lydians  out  against  him  :  but  as  the  Lydian  troops  were 
mostly  all  horse,  Cyrus  had  recourse  to  the  stratagem  of 
putting  in  the  front  of  his  army  the  camels,  the  sight  and 
smell  of  which  the  Lydian  horses  could  not  endure.  They 
became  unmanageable ;  the  riders  dismounted,  and  fought 
bravely,  but  were  obliged  to  yield  to  numbers.  Crcesus 
was  besieged  in  his  capital,  and  forced  to  surrender  ;  and 
the  Lydian  empire  merged  in  that  of  Persia.  (Ol.  58,  3.) 

Cyrus  had,  during  the  war,  endeavored,  without  success, 
to  alienate  the  Ionians  from  Crcesus.  They  and  the  JEo- 
lians  now  sent  ambassadors,  praying  to  be  received  to  sub- 
mission on  the  same  terms  as  those  on  which  they  had 
obeyed  the  Lydian  monarch  ;  but  the  Milesians  alone  found 
favor  :  the  rest  had  to  prepare  for  war.  They  repaired  the 
walls  of  their  towns,  and  sent  to  Sparta  for  aid.  Aid,  how- 
ever, was  refused  ;  but  Cyrus,  being  called  away  by  the  war 
with  Babylon,  neglected  them  for  the  present. '  Three  years 
afterwards,  (Ol.  59,  2,)  Harpagus,  who  had  saved  Cyrus  in  his 
infancy  from  his  grandfather  Astyages,  came  as  governor  of 
Lydia.  He  instantly  prepared  to  reduce  the  cities  of  the 
coast-  Town  after  town  submitted  ;  the  Teians  abandoned 
theirs,  and  retired  to  Abdera  in  Thrace ;  the  Phocseans,  get- 
ting on  shipboard,  and  vowing  never  to  return,  sailed  for 


and  an  army  of  Crusaders  was  annihilated  on  it  by  the  Turks  in  the 
time  of  the  first  Crusade. 


82  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Corsica,  and  being  there  harassed  by  the  Carthaginians  and 
Tyrrhenians,  they  went  to  Rhegion  in  Italy,  and  at  length 
founded  Massalia  (Marseilles)  on  the  coast  of  Gaul. 

The  Grecian  colonies  thus  became  a  part  of  the  Persian- 
empire.  Cyrus,  meantime,  had  taken  Babylon  ;  but  not  long 
afterwards,  he  was  defeated  and  slain  by  the  Massagetes,  a 
Turkish  tribe  who  dwelt  north  of  Persia.  His  son  and  suc- 
cessor, Cambyses,  invaded  and  conquered  Egypt.  On  his 
death,  his  throne  was  usurped  by  a  Magian,  or  priest  of  the 
fire-religion  of  Persia,  who  personated  the  late  monarch's 
brother ;  but  a  conspiracy  deprived  him  of  life,  and  the 
throne  was  occupied  (Ol.  64,  4)  by  Darius,  son  of  Hystaspes, 
a  Persian  of  noble  birth.  The  dominions  of  Darius  extended 
from  the  River  Indus  to  the  Mediterranean,  from  the  con- 
fines of  Scythia  to  those  of  ^Ethiopia.* 

An  energetic  prince,  like  Darius,  at  the  head  of  a  power- 
ful empire,  could  not  be  expected  to  remain  at  rest.  As 
Asia  now  offered  no  enemy,  he  resolved  to  lead  an  army 
into  Scythia,  and  teach  the  nomades,  who  roamed  its  plains, 
to  respect  the  power  of  the  lord  of  Asia.  Under  the  direc- 
tion of  a  Samian  named  Mandrocles,  a  bridge  of  boats  was 
constructed  by  the  Greeks  across  the  Bosporus,  over  which 
Darius  led  his  army  of  seventy  myriads  of  men.f  The 
Greeks  then  sailed  away  to  the  Ister,  (Danube,)  near  the 
mouth  of  which  they  made  another  bridge,  while  the  Per- 
sian army  marched  through  Thrace,  crossed  Mount  Haemus, 
(Balkan,)  and  came  to  the  banks  of  that  river.  Leaving  the 
Greeks  to  take  care  of  the  bridge,  Darius  entered  Scythia, 
(southern  Russia;)  but  the  Scythians  would  give  no  oppor- 
tunity for  fighting,  and  want  of  supplies  at  length   forced 

*  The  authority  for  the  remainder  of  this  chapter  is  Herodotus, 
Books  iv.  v.  and  vi. 

t  That  is,  700,000.  This  is  evidently  a  gross  exaggeration  ;  for 
where  could  food  be  had  for  such  a  number  ?  We  will  observe,  once 
for  all,  that  the  numbers  in  ancient,  middle-age,  and  oriental  history  are 
to  be  received  with  extreme  suspicion.  They  are  frequently  greatly 
exaggerated. 


INVASION    OF    SCYTHIA    BY    DARIUS.  83 

the  Persian  monarch  to  make  a  rapid  retreat  to  the  Ister. 
The  Scythians  had  meantime  urged  the  Greeks  to  seize 
the  opportunity  now  presented  of  regaining  their  independ- 
ence, by  breaking  up  the  bridge  and  leaving  the  Persian 
army  to  perish.  In  the  council  held  by  the  chiefs,  that  is, 
the  tyrants  of  the  subject  Greek  cities,  Miltiades,  an  Athe- 
nian, who  was  tyrant  of  the  Chersonese,  strongly  exhorted 
them  to  follow  the  advice  of  the  Scythians ;  but  Histiaeus  of 
Miletus  reminding  them  that  if  the  Persian  yoke  was  thrown 
off,  their  own  would  not  long  be  submitted  to,  it  was  re- 
solved to  remain  faithful  to  the  king.  To  deceive  the  Scyth- 
ians, however,  they  began  to  loosen  the  bridge  at  the  fur- 
ther side  of  the  river. 

It  was  night  when  the  Persian  army  reached  the  Ister; 
and  finding  the  bridge  loosened,  they  were  in  consternation. 
An  Egyptian,  who  had  a  powerful  voice,  stood,  by  Darius' 
command,  on  the  side  of  the  river,  and  called  Histiaeus  the 
Milesian.  Histiaeus  soon  appeared ;  the  bridge  was  speedily 
put  together  again,  and  the  Persians  passed  safely  over. 
Darius  marched  his  army  to  Sestos  on  the  Hellespont, 
whence  he  passed  over  to  Asia,  leaving  a  part  of  his  troops 
with  Megabazus  in  Thrace,  to  subdue  the  remainder  of  that 
country.  He  proceeded  thence  to  Sardes,  where  he  staid 
some  time. 

Megabazus  speedily  reduced  all  Thrace,  to  the  confines 
of  Macedonia,  the  king  of  which  country  also  acknowledged 
himself  the  vassal  of  Persia.  He  then  proceeded  to  Sardes, 
where  he  remonstrated  with  Darius  on  the  impolicy  of  which 
he  had  been  guilty  in  giving  Histiaeus,  as  a  reward  for  his 
services,  permission  to  build  a  town  at  the  River  Strymon 
in  Thrace,  where  there  were  mines  of  gold  and  plenty  of 
timber  for  ship-building  ;  so  that,  by  putting  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  Greeks  and  the  people  of  the  country,  he  could 
raise  a  rebellion  whenever  he  pleased.  Darius  saw  the  force 
of  what  Megabazus  said,  and  by  his  advice  sent  for  Histiaeus, 
and  pretending  that  his  counsel  and  presence  were  indispen- 
sable to  him,  took  him  with  him  to  Persia. 


84  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Histiaeus  left  the  government  of  Miletus  to  his  son-in- 
law  Aristagoras.  Some  time  afterwards,  (01.  69,  4,)  in 
consequence  of  the  contest  between  the  aristocratic  and 
democratic  principles,  which  prevailed  there  as  well  as 
every  where  else  at  this  time,  some  of  the  nobility  were  ex- 
pelled from  the  Isle  of  Naxos.  Being  guest-friends  *  (%evol) 
of  Histiaeus,  they  came  to  Miletus  seeking  aid.  Aristagoras 
said  that  his  own  power  was  not  adequate  to  restore  them, 
but  offered  to  apply  to  Artaphernes,  King  Darius'  brother, 
who  was  at  Sardes,  in  their  behalf.  To  the  Persian  he  rep- 
resented how  easily  he  might  make  himself  master  of 
Naxos,  and  then  of  the  other  Cyclades,  and  finally  of  the 
rich  Isle  of  Eubcea,  under  the  pretext  of  restoring  these 
exiles.  Artaphernes  approved,  the  consent  of  the  king  was 
obtained,  and  a  fleet  of  two  hundred  triremes  with  troops 
put  to  sea  under  the  command  of  a  Persian  named  Mega- 
bates.  They  sailed  as  if  for  the  Hellespont,  and  stopped  at 
Chios,  intending  to  run  for  Naxos  with  the  north  wind. 
While  here,  Megabytes  punished,  for  neglect  of  duty,  one  of 
the  captains,  who  was  a  friend  of  Aristagoras.  The  Mile- 
sian insulted  Megabytes,  who,  in  revenge,  sent  secretly  to 
inform  the  Naxians  of  their  danger.  As  soon  as  the  Naxians 
learned  that  their  isle  was  to  be  attacked,  they  collected  all 
their  property  from  the  country  into  their  town,  and  the 
Persian  army,  after  besieging  them  for  four  months,  was 
obliged  to  retire  for  want  of  supplies. 

Aristagoras,  fearing  the  ill  consequences  of  this  failure 
to  himself,  began  now  to  meditate  a  revolt.  Just  at  this 
time,  too,  came  a  message  from  Histiaeus  recommending  this 
course  to  him.  For,  weary  of  his  abode  at  Susa,  the  Mile- 
sian prince  thought  his  only  chance  of  escape  was  to  raise 
a  rebellion  on  the  coast,  which  he  might  be  sent  to  quell. 
Fearing  to  write,  he  took  a  trusty  slave,  and  shaving  off  the 
hair  of  his  head,  pricked  on  the  skin  what  he  wished  to  say  ; 


*  We  use  this  compound,  as  no  single  word  in  our  language  will  ex- 
press the  relation  indicated  by  it. 


REVOLT    OF    THE    ASIATIC    GREEKS.  85 

then  having  kept  him  till  the  hair  was  grown,  he  sent  him 
to  Miletus,  telling  him  to  desire  Aristagoras  to  shave  off 
his  hair  and  look  at  the  skin.  This  decided  Aristagoras ; 
he  held  a  council  of  the  principal  Milesians,  and  all  declared 
for  revolt  but  Hecataeus  the  historian,  who  knew  the  extent 
and  the  strength  of  the  Persian  empire  far  better  than  they. 
Finding  them,  however,  bent  on  it,  he  advised  them  to  take 
the  treasures  which  Croesus  had  dedicated  at  the  temple 
of  Branchidae,  and  to  endeavor  to  become  masters  at  sea. 
This  counsel,  too,  was  rejected.  The  greater  part  of  the 
commanders  of  the  ships  which  had  been  at  Naxos  were 
gained  over.  To  win  the  people,  Aristagoras  laid  down  his 
own  tyranny,  and  seizing  the  other  tyrants  who  were  on 
board  the  ships,  sent  them  prisoners  to  their  respective 
towns ;  and  with  one  exception,  the  people  let  them  go  free 
and  uninjured  —  a  proof  that  their  rule  had  not  been  very 
oppressive. 

Some  powerful  ally  being  necessary,  Aristagoras  repaired 
in  person  to  Lacedaemon,  taking  with  him  money  and  a 
brass  plate  on  which  was  cut  a  map  of  the  world  — probably 
the  work  of  Hecataeus.  He  addressed  himself  to  King  Cle- 
omenes,  showing  him  on  the  map  the  different  nations  of 
Asia,  expatiating  on  their  wealth,  and  assuring  him  that 
with  ease  he  might  reach  Susa  and  win  the  Persian  empire. 
Cleomenes  promised  to  give  him  his  answer  on  the  third 
day.  When  that  day  came,  he  asked  him  how  many  days' 
journey  it  was  from  the  coast  to  Susa  :  the  Milesian  in- 
cautiously replied,  three  months.  Cleomenes,  appalled  at 
such  a  distance,  ordered  him  to  quit  Sparta  by  sunset,  and 
left  him.  Aristagoras,  taking  a  branch  of  olive  in  his  hand, 
followed  him  to  his  house  as  a  suppliant :  he  found  him 
alone  with  his  little  daughter  Gorgo,  a  child  of  eight  or 
nine  years.  He  begged  him  to  send  the  child  away,  but 
Cleomenes  bade  him  to  say  what  he  wished  without  heed- 
ing her.  Aristagoras  then  offered  him  ten  talents  if  he 
would  do  as  he  desired  :  he  rose  gradually  to  fifty,  when  the 
child  cried  out,  "  Father,  the  stranger  will  corrupt  you  if  you 
8 


SO  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

do  not  go  away  ! "  Cleomenes  left  the  room,  and  the  baffled 
Milesian  had  to  depart  from  Sparta  without  delay. 

He  thence  proceeded  to  Athens,  now  revelling  in  her 
recovered  liberty,  and  drew  there  to  the  people  the  same 
brilliant  picture  of  Asiatic  dominion  which  he  had  set  be- 
fore the  Spartan  king,  reminding  them  at  the  same  time 
that  the  Milesians  were  their  colonists.  His  words  found 
ready  acceptance,  and  it  was  decreed  to  send  twenty  ships 
to  the  aid  of  the  Ionians.  Aristagoras  returned  home,  and 
sent  to  the  Paeonians  whom  Megabazus  had  taken  from  their 
own  country  and  placed  in  Phrygia,  offering  to  convey  them 
back  to  Europe.  The  love  of  home  excited  them  :  with  their 
wives  and  children,  they  came  down  to  the  coast,  and  were 
passed  over  to  Chios,  thence  to  Lesbos,  thence  to  Doriscus 
in  Thrace,  whence  they  proceeded  overland  home. 

The  Athenian  fleet  and  five  triremes  from  Eretria  soon 
arrived  at  Miletus,  and  being  joined  by  the  Milesians,  pro- 
ceeded to  Ephesus.  Here  the  troops  landed,  and,  guided  by 
the  Ephesians,  crossed  Mount  Tmolus,  and  tookSardes  with- 
out opposition  ;  Artaphernes  and  the  few  troops  that  were 
with  him  having  retired  to  the  citadel.  The  houses  in 
Sardes  were  mostly  built  of  reeds,  with  which  such  of  them 
as  were  of  brick  were  also  roofed.  A  soldier  chanced  to  set 
one  of  them  on  fire  :  the  flames  spread  rapidly  from  house 
to  house  ;  the  inhabitants  retired  to  the  market,  through 
which  the  River  Pactolus  ran,  and  there  stood  on  their  de- 
fence. The  Ionians,  seeing  their  numbers,  retired  to  Mount 
Tmolus,  and  in  the  night  retreated  to  the  coast.  The  Per- 
sians, who  were  on  this  side  of  the  Halys,  hastened  to  the 
aid  of  the  Sardians,  and  pursuing  the  invaders,  came  up  with 
and  defeated  them  at  Ephesus.  The  Athenians  went  home, 
refusing  to  take  any  further  part  in  the  war.  The  Ionians, 
having  gone  so  far,  could  not  recede :  they  sailed  to  the 
Hellespont,  reduced  Byzantion  and  some  other  towns,  then, 
returning,  gained  over  the  whole  of  Caria,  and  finally  in- 
duced the  Isle  of  Cyprus  to  join  in  the  revolt. 

Darius,  when  he  heard  of  the  revolt  of  the  Ionians,  sent 


REVOLT    OF    THE    ASIATIC    GREEKS.  87 

for  Histiseus,  and  intimated  his  suspicion  of  his  being  con- 
cerned in  exciting  it.  Histiseus  easily  cleared  himself  in 
the  king's  mind,  and  assuring  him  that  the  want  of  his  pres- 
ence had  been  the  true  cause,  persuaded  him  to  let  him  go 
down  to  the  coast,  promising  to  return  to  Susa  when  he 
had  reestablished  tranquillity. 

Meantime,  Artybius,  a  Persian  general,  having  assembled 
an  army  in  Cilicia,  and  being  joined  by  the  Phoenician  fleet, 
passed  over  to  Cyprus,  in  which  the  people  of  Amathus  alone 
obeyed  the  king.  Onesilus,  the  leader  of  the  independent 
party,  sent  to  the  Ionians  for  aid.  Their  fleet  soon  appeared, 
and  engaged  and  defeated  that  of  the  Phoenicians ;  but  the 
Cypriotes,  though  Artybius  fell  by  the  hand  of  Onesilus,  were 
overcome  in  the  land  battle,  and  the  whole  island  was  again 
reduced  beneath  the  yoke  of  Persia.*  At  the  same  time, 
the  other  Persian  generals  reduced  the  cities  on  the  Helles- 
pont, and  defeated  the  Carians  and  Milesians  at  Labranda ; 
and  Aristagoras,  despairing  of  safety,  retired  to  Myrcinus 
in  Thrace,  where  he  shortly  afterwards  fell  in  a  battle  against 
the  people  of  the  country. 

The  whole  force  of  Persia  in  these  parts  was  now  turned 
against  Miletus.  A  fleet  of  six  hundred  triremes  came  from 
Phoenicia,  Cyprus,  Cilicia,  and  Egypt,  and  a  numerous  army 
advanced  against  it  by  land.  The  Milesians  resolved  merely 
to  defend  their  walls,  and  only  to  try  the  chance  of  a  naval 
engagement.  Miletus,  Myus,  Erythrae,  Priene,  Teos,  and 
Phocaea  sent  among  them  123  ships,  of  which  Miletus  fur- 
nished 80 ;  Chios  sent  100,  Lesbos  70,  Samos  60 ;  in  all, 
353  triremes  were  assembled  at  the  Isle  of  Lade  before  the 
port  of  Miletus.  The  Persian  leaders,  fearing  the  number 
of  the  Greek  ships,  called  together  the  expelled  tyrants  of 
the  cities  who  were  in  their  camp,  and  urged  them  to  try 
to  detach  their  former  subjects  from  the  confederacy.  They 
therefore  sent  secretly,  giving  them  terrific  accounts  of  the 

*  Herodotus  says  the  defeat  was  caused  in  a  great  measure  by  the 
retreat  of  the  Salaminian  war-chariots.  This  is  the  last  time  we  hear 
of  these  vehicles  in  Grecian  warfare. 


bb  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

evils  that  awaited  them  in  case  of  defeat ;  but  their  efforts 
were  in  vain ;  the  Ionians  would  not  resign  their  liberty  with- 
out at  least  a  struggle. 

Dionysius,  who  commanded  one  of  the  three  triremes 
which  Phocsea  had  furnished,  promised,  if  they  would  follow 
his  directions,  to  render  them  superior  to  the  enemy.  They 
assented,  and  every  day  he  made  them  get  on  board  of  their 
ships,  and  put  out  to  sea  and  exercise.  They  bore  this  la- 
bor for  seven  days;  but  at  length  declaring  that  slavery  to 
the  Persians  would  be  more  tolerable  than  such  hardship, 
they  positively  refused  to  go  on  board  any  more,  and  setting 
up  tents  in  the  isle,  lived  there  at  their  ease.  The  Samian 
leaders,  it  is  said,  seeing  them  acting  thus,  lent  a  willing 
ear  to  the  representations  of  iEacus,  their  former  tyrant,  and 
agreed  to  desert  the  Ionians.  In  the  battle  which  ensued, 
all  the  Samian  ships  but  eleven  turned  and  fled ;  the  Les- 
bians, who  were  next,  then  followed  their  example,  as  also 
did  some  of  the  Ionians.  The  Chians  fought  bravely,  and 
lost  most  of  their  ships  ;  the  rest  they  ran  ashore  at  Mycale  ; 
but  as  they  were  going  home  by  land,  they  came  by  night 
near  Ephesus,  where  the  women  were  celebrating  the  feast 
of  the  Thesmophoria ;  the  Ephesians,  taking  them  for  rob- 
bers, come  to  carry  off  the  women,  fell  on  them,  and  the 
brave  Chians  perished  by  their  hands.  Dionysius,  knowing 
that  his  country  would  be  enslaved,  would  not  return.  He 
made  sail  for  Phoenicia,  where  he  took  several  merchant- 
vessels,  and  then  going  to  Sicily,  exercised  piracy  against  the 
Carthaginians  and  Etruscans,  always  sparing  Greek  vessels. 

Miletus  was  now  attacked  by  sea  and  by  land.  It  was 
taken  (Ol.  71 ,  3)  in  the  sixth  year  after  its  revolt ;  and  its 
inhabitants  were  transplanted  by  King  Darius  to  Ampe  on 
the  Tigris,  at  the  head  of  the  Erythrean  Sea,  (Persian  Gulf.) 
Such  of  the  Milesians  as  escaped  joined  a  portion  of  the 
Samians,  who  would  not  live  under  the  tyranny  of  JEacus, 
and  going  to  Sicily,  made  themselves  masters  of  Zancle. 
The  whole  of  the  revolted  towns  were  reduced,  one  after 
the  other,  by  the  Persian  arms,  and  the  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence terminated. 


REVOLT    OF    THE    ASIATIC    GREEKS.  89 

We  must  now  relate  the  fate  of  Histiseus,  the  author  of 
the  revolt.  On  coming  to  Sardes,  and  finding  himself  sus- 
pected by  Artaphernes,  he  fled  away  by  night,  and  got  over 
to  Chios.  He  then  tried  to  recover  his  former  power  in 
Miletus ;  but  the  people,  having  tasted  the  sweets  of  liberty, 
would  not  admit  him ;  and  he  received  a  wound  in  the  thigh 
in  an  attempt  he  made  on  the  town  by  night.  He  then  went 
to  Lesbos,  where  the  people  gave  him  eight  triremes,  with 
which  he  sailed  to  Byzantion,  and  captured  the  Ionian  ves- 
sels coming  from  the  Pontus.  When  he  heard  of  the  defeat 
of  the  Ionians,  he  made  sail  for  Chios,  and  with  the  aid  of 
the  Lesbians  reduced  that  isle.  Immediately  after,  he  at- 
tacked the  Isle  of  Thasos  ;  but  hearing  that  the  Phoenician 
fleet  was  reducing  the  coast  of  Ionia,  he  returned  to  the 
defence  of  Chios  and  Lesbos.  His  troops  being  in  want  of 
food,  he  led  them  over  to  the  main  land  to  seize  the  corn  on 
the  plains  of  Mysia ;  but  Harpagus,  the  Persian  commander, 
fell  upon  and  cut  them  to  pieces,  and  Histiseus  himself  was 
made  a  prisoner.  He  was  brought  to  Sardes,  where  he  was 
instantly  put  to  death  by  Artaphernes,  and  his  head  sent  to 
Susa.  Darius,  mindful  of  his  former  services,  gave  it  an 
honorable  sepulture,  and  severely  blamed  those  who  had  put 
him  to  death. 

Artaphernes  now  (Ol.  71,  4)  regulated  the  tributes  of 
the  Greek  cities  ;  *  but  the  amount  was  not  raised.  He  also 
prohibited  their  making  war  on  and  plundering  each  other, 
as  they  had  been  in  the  habit  of  doing. 

The  following  spring,  (Ol.  72,  1,)  Mardonius,  the  son  of 
Gobryas,  who  was  lately  married  to  one  of  King  Darius's 
daughters,  came  down  to  the  sea-coast  with  a  large  army. 
In  Cilicia  he  got  aboard  of  the  fleet,  leaving  his  army  to 
proceed  by  land ;  and  as  he  sailed  along  the  coast  of  Ionia, 
he  reestablished  the  democracies  in  the  cities  —  probably 
with  a  view  to  attaching  the  people  to  the  Persian  monarchy. 

*  "  Which,"  says  Herodotus,  (vi.  42,)  "  they  still  pay,"  i.  e.  toward 
the  end  of  the  Peloponnesian  war. 


90  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Having  put  the  army  across  the  Hellespont,  he  advanced, 
professing  to  be  about  to  take  vengeance  on  Eretria  and 
Athens.  He  reduced  the  Isle  of  Thasos  and  Macedonia  5 
but  his  fleet  being  greatly  shattered  in  doubling  Mount 
Athos,  and  his  army  having  suffered  and  himself  being 
wounded  in  a  night  attack  of  the  Thracian  Bryges,  he  re- 
turned to  Asia,  after  having  subdued  that  people. 


CHAPTER  X.* 


INVASION  OF  GREECE. BATTLE  OF  MARATHON. ARISTEIDES 

AND  THEMISTOCLES. 

The  conquest  of  Greece  was  now  become  the  favorite 
object  of  the  Persian  monarch's  ambition.  He  was  prob- 
ably well  instructed  of  the  state  of  parties  there,  and  ex- 
pected that  some  states  would  be  induced  to  yield  a  volun- 
tary submission  to  his  yoke.  Accordingly,  after  the  Per- 
sian fashion,  he  sent.  (Ol.  71,  4)  heralds,  demanding  earth 
and  water,  which  were  given  by  some  of  the  continental 
states,  and  by  all  the  islands,  particularly  iEgina.  The 
Athenians,  who  instantly  suspected  that  the  object  of  the 
^Eginetes  was  to  overcome  them  with  Persian  aid,  sent  to 
Sparta  to  complain  of  this  their  treachery  to  Greece.  King 
Cleomenes  forthwith  passed  over  to  ^Egina  to  seize  the 
guilty  persons ;  but  his  colleague  Demaratus  had  secretly 
furnished  the  JEginetes  with  an  excuse  for  refusing  com- 
pliance with  his  demands,  and  he  retired,  meditating  ven- 
geance on  Demaratus,  which  he  accomplished  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner  : 

Ariston,  the  father  of  Demaratus,  had  by  stratagem  ob- 
tained for  himself  the  beautiful  wife   of  his  friend  Agetos 

*  Herod,  vi.  104—136. 


INVASION    OF    GREECE.  91 

When  her  first  child  by  him  was  born,  a  servant  ran  to  an- 
nounce it  to  him,  as  he  was  sitting  with  the  Ephors.  Reckon- 
ing and  finding  that  her  ten  months  were  not  accomplished, 
he  inconsiderately  cried  out,  "  Then  it  is  not  mine."  No 
further  notice,  however,  was  taken  at  the  time,  and  Dema- 
ratus succeeded  him  on  the  throne.  But  now  Cleomenes 
incited  Leotychides,  of  the  same  house  with  Demaratus,  to 
call  his  legitimacy  in  question.  The  matter  was,  as  usual, 
referred  to  the  Delphian  oracle,  and  Cleomenes  induced  one 
of  the  principal  men  at  Delphi  to  use  his  influence  with  the 
priestess  to  procure  a  response  such  as  he  desired.  Dema- 
ratus was  accordingly  declared  not  to  be  of  the  blood  of 
Hercules,  and  was  deposed,  and  his  place  given  to  Leotych- 
ides. He  became  a  private  Spartan  ;  but  fired  by  an  in- 
sult offered  him  by  his  successor,  he  left  Lacedaemon,  and 
finding  himself  still  persecuted  by  the  Spartans,  he  passed 
over  to  Asia,  where  King  Darius  received  him  joyfully,  and 
gave  him  lands  and  towns  for  his  support.  (Ol.  72,  1.) 

The  two  kings  now  went  to  ^Egina,  and  caused  ten  of  the 
principal  people  to  be  surrendered  to  them.  These  they  gave 
to  their  enemies,  the  Athenians,  to  keep  in  safe  custody. 
After  the  death  of  Cleomenes,  the  ^Eginetes  accused  Leo- 
tychides before  the  Spartans,  and  he  was  obliged  to  obtain 
the  release  of  the  prisoners  from  the  Athenians. 

The  guilty  conspiracy  against  Demaratus  did  not  pass 
unpunished.  It  came  to  light;  the  Delphian  was  forced  to 
fly;  the  priestess  was  deprived  of  her  office;  Cleomenes 
fled  to  Thessaly,  and  thence  to  Arcadia,  where  he  sought  to 
excite  war  against  his  country.  The  Spartans  recalled  him  ; 
but  ere  long  he  went  mad,  and  having  procured  a  knife 
while  in  confinement,  he  cut  off  his  own  flesh  and  died. 
(Ol.  72,  2.)  Leotychides,  having  been  sent  with  an  army 
to  Thessaly  against  the  Aleuads,  was  caught  in  the  act  of 
taking  bribes ;  and  being  accused  at  Sparta,  and  fearing  a 
condemnation,  he  fled  to  Tegea,  where  he  died. 

The  Persian  monarch  had  now  completed  his  preparations 
for  the  subjugation  of  Greece.     A  large  army,  under  the 


92  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

command  of  Datis,  a  Mede,  and  Artaphernes,  a  Persian, 
son  of  the  king's  brother  of  the  same  name,  was  assembled 
in  Cilicia.  (01.  72,  3.)  A  fleet  of  six  hundred  triremes  and 
a  number  of  horse-transports,  furnished  by  the  maritime 
subject  states,  here  took  the  troops  on  board.  They  sailed 
along  the  coast  northwards  to  the  Isle  of  Samos;  then, 
crossing  the  Icarian  Sea,  directed  their  course  to  the  Isle  of 
Naxos,  where  they  burned  the  town  and  the.  temples,  and 
enslaved  such  of  the  inhabitants  as  they  found,  the  greater 
part  having  fled  to  the  mountains.  On  coming  to  Delos, 
and  finding  that  the  inhabitants  had  retired  to  Tenos,  Datis 
sent  to  inform  them  that  they  need  not  fear,  as  the  king's 
command  and  his  own  feelings  forbade  him  to  injure  the 
place  "  where  the  two  gods  were  born."  *  He  burned  there 
three  hundred  talents  of  incense  on  the  altar.  Having  re- 
ceived the  submission  and  hostages  of  the  Cyclad  Isles,  the 
Persian  commanders  steered  for  Euboea,  where  they  Landed, 
and  forced  the  city  of  Carystus  to  submit.  They  then 
proceeded  to  Eretria,  whose  people,  hearing  of  their  ap- 
proach, sent  to  the  Athenians  for  aid.  The  four  thousand 
colonists  at  Chalcis  t  were  ordered  to  go  to  their  assistance  ; 
but  as  they  were  coming,  they  were  informed  by  the  princi- 
pal man  of  the  town  that  a  large  party  of  the  Eretrians  were 
for  surrender,  and  he  advised  them  to  reserve  themselves  for 
the  defence  of  their  own  country.  They  therefore  retired, 
and  passed  over  to  Oropus. 

After  a  siege  of  seven  days,  Eretria  was  betrayed  to  the 
Persians  :  its  temples  were  plundered  and  burnt,  and  its 
inhabitants  reduced  to  slavery.j:     By  the  advice  of  Hippias, 

*  Apollo  and  Artemis,  whom  he  therefore  regarded  as  the  gods  of  the 
sun  and  moon. 

t  See  page  75. 

$  Plato  (Laws,  iii.  §  14,  Menexenus,  §  10,  Bekk.)  says  the  Persians 
dragged  (ioayijvsvoav)  the  island.  Of  this  Herodotus  says  nothing, 
and  it  is  not  likely.  The  historian  (vi.  31)  thus  describes  the  process 
of  dragging  :  the  soldiers,  taking  hands,  extended  themselves  in  a  line 
from  sea  to  sea,  and  thus  marched  from   one  end  of  an  island  to  the 


INVASION    OF     GREECE.  93 

who  was  with  them,  the  Persians  then  passed  over  to  Mar- 
athon, on  the  coast  of  Attica,  where  a  plain  of  some  extent 
would  permit  their  cavalry  to  act  with  advantage. 

At  Athens,  however,  all  was  prepared  for  a  vigorous  de- 
fence. The  command  was  committed  to  the  ten  generals 
(one  from  each  phyle)  and  the  Polemarch  Archon.  A  swift 
courier,  named  Pheidippides,  was  sent  to  summon  aid  from 
Sparta;  and  on  the  second  day,  though  the  distance  was 
more  than  nine  hundred  stadia,  he  reached  that  town.  The 
Spartans  readily  promised  their  assistance ;  but  it  was  only 
the  ninth  day  of  the  month,  and  it  was  their  custom  never 
to  march  from  home  but  at  the  full  of  the  moon.  They 
therefore  were  reluctantly  obliged  to  defer  their  departure 
for  five  days. 

The  Athenians,  meantime,  had  advanced  to  Marathon, 
which  was  two  hundred  stadia  from  their  city.  They  halted 
at  the  temple  of  Hercules,  where  they  were  joined  by  the 
whole  military  population  of  their  faithful  allies,  the  Plataeans. 
For  this  people,  who  dwelt  at  the  foot  of  Cithaeron,  in  Bceo- 
tia,  being  hard  pressed  by  their  ambitious  neighbors,  the 
Thebans,  had  (01.  65,  2)  offered  King  Cleomenes  and  the 
Lacedaemonians  to  put  themselves  under  their  protection; 
but  they  represented  to  them  that,  on  account  of  the  distance, 
they  could  not  always  come  to  their  aid,  and  advised  them 
to  apply  to  the  Athenians ;  and  this  they  did,  says  Herodo- 
tus, not  out  of  regard  to  the  Athenians,  but  that  they  might 
be  embroiled  with  the  Thebans.  The  Plataeans  did  as 
directed,  and  the  friendship  and  fidelity  between  them  and 
their  patrons  was  most  enduring  and  highly  honorable  to 
both. 

Among  the  Athenian  generals  was  Miltiades,  who  had 
been  tyrant  of  the  Athenian  colony  at  the  Chersonese,  and, 
as  we  have  seen,  advised  the  Ionians  to  loosen  the  bridge  on 
the  Ister.  To  escape  the  vengeance  of  the  Persians,  he  had 
fled  back  to  Athens,  where  his  family  was  of  consequence, 

other,  so  that  nothing  could  escape  them,  and  the  inhabitants  were 
taken  like  wild  beasts. 


94  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

and  resumed  his  rights  of  citizenship  :  his  enemies  accused 
him  here  of  having  held  the  tyranny,  but  the  people  acquit- 
ted him,  and  now  had  chosen  him  one  of  the  ten  generals. 
His  knowledge  of  the  Persians  and  their  tactics  and  mode 
of  fighting  had,  of  course,  influenced  them  in  their  choice. 

In  the  council  of  war  which  was  held,  the  opinions  were 
divided  equally;  Miltiades  and  four  others  being  for  en- 
gaging, the  rest  for  delay.  The  casting  vote  lay  with  the 
Polemarch  Callimachus.  Miltiades  urged  on  him  the  dan- 
ger of  delay,  as  in  such  case,  there  could  be  little  doubt  that 
dissension  would  break  out,  and  a  portion  of  the  people 
medise*  and  then  their  reduction  under  the  yoke  of  Hip- 
pias  would  be  inevitable.  Callimachus  was  convinced,  and 
he  gave  his  vote  for  immediate  action.  Aristeides  and  the 
other  generals  who  had  voted  on  the  same  side,  when  their 
day  of  command  (for  they  took  it  by  turns)  came,  resigned 
it  to  Miltiades,  who,  however,  would  not  engage  till  his  own 
day  was  come. 

On  that  day  Miltiades  drew  up  his  forces  in  line  of  battle. 
The  Polemarch,  in  virtue  of  his  office,  commanded  the  right 
wing ;  the  Athenians  extended  thence  in  order  of  their  phyles ; 
and  the  Plataeans  formed  the  left  wing.  To  give  the  greater 
extent  to  his  front,  Miltiades  diminished  the  number  of 
ranks  in  the  centre,  while  he  increased  those  of  the  wings. 
The  enemy  was  now  also  in  battle  array,  the  Persians  and 
Sacians  forming  the  centre.  The  distance  between  the  ar- 
mies was  eight  stadia.  The  sacrifices  proving  favorable, 
the  Athenians  advanced  running,  probably  to  give  more 
force  to  their  charge,  or  to  escape  the  Persian  arrows.  The 
Persians,  deeming  them  mad,  received  their  charge,  and 
broke  and  pursued  the  Greek  centre  ;  but  the  Greek  wings 
were  victorious,  and,  instead  of  pursuing,  they  turned,  and 
engaged  and  defeated  those  who  had  broken  their  centre. 
The  Barbarians  fled  to  their  ships,  abandoning  their  camp, 

*  We  use  this  verb  and  the  substantive  medism  for  the  act  of  siding 
with  the  Persians.  The  Medes  seem  at  this  time  to  have  been  better 
known  than  the  Persians. 


BATTLE  OF    MARATHON.  95 

which  became  the  prey  of  the  victors,  and  seven  of  the  ships 
also  were  taken.*  On  the  side  of  the  Persians,  6400  men 
fell;  the  Athenians  are  said  to  have  lost  but  192  :  the  Pole- 
march  Callimachus  was  among  the  slain.  The  Persians, 
having  taken  on  board  their  Eretrian  captives,  whom  they 
had  left  in  a  small  island,  sailed  round  Cape  Sunion,  in  the 
hope  of  surprising  Athens ;  but  when  they  came  to  the  port 
of  Phaleron,  near  the  city,  they  saw  that  the  troops  were 
prepared  to  meet  them,  for  the  Athenian  commanders,  sus- 
pecting their  design,  had  led  back  all  the  phyles  but  one, 
which  remained  under  Aristeides,  to  guard  the  booty  and 
prisoners.!  The  Persians,  thus  baffled,  returned  to  Asia. 
The  Eretrians  were  sent  to  Darius,  who  settled  them  at  a 
place  named  Ardericca,  in  the  land  of  the  Cissians. 

After  the  full  moon,  2000  Lacedaemonians  came  to  Athens, 
having  marched  nine  hundred  stadia  in  three  days.  Finding 
the  battle  over,  they  went  to  Marathon  to  look  at  the  bodies 
of  the  Barbarians,  and  then  returned  home  praising  the  valor 
of  the  Athenians. 

Contrary  to  the  usual  custom  of  the  Athenians,  those 
who  fell  at  Marathon  were  buried  in  a  mound  on  the  spot, 
and  pillars  were  set  up,  inscribed  with  their  names  and  their 
phyles.  Another  mound  contained  the  bodies  of  the  Pla- 
teeans  and  the  slaves. J  Neither  mound  nor  pillar  marked 
the  burial-place  of  the  Persians.  In  after  times,  the  Mara- 
thonians  worshipped  the  slain  as  heroes,  and  with  them  a 
hero  named  Echetlaeos;  for  it  was  said,  that  in  the  fight 
there  appeared  a  man  of  rustic  mien,  armed  with  a  plough, 

*  We  have  here  an  instance  of  the  absurd  exaggerations  in  which 
the  later  writers  indulged.  Herodotus  (vi.  114)  relates  that  an  Athe- 
nian named  Cynaegeirus,  having  laid  hold  of  the  stern  of  one  of  the 
ships,  the  Persians  cut  off  his  hand  with  an  axe.  Justin,  (ii.  9,)  to  aug- 
ment the  marvel,  adds,  that  when  his  right  hand  was  struck  off,  he  grasped 
the  ship  with  his  left,  and  that  also  being  cut  off,  he  seized  it  with  his 
teeth  ! 

t  Plutarch,  Aristeides,  5. 

t  Pausanias,  i.  32,  3.  The  slaves,  if  any  were  there,  were  probably 
a  part  of  the  Platcean  forces. 


96  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

with  which  he  did  great  scathe  to  the  Barbarians.  After 
the  battle,  he  was  seen  no  more ;  and  the  oracle,  being  con- 
sulted, directed  them  to  honor  the  hero  Echetlaeos.  It 
was  also  believed,  in  after  times,  that  at  night  might  be  heard 
by  wayfarers  on  the  plain  of  Marathon  the  neighing  of  the 
Persian  war-steeds,  and  the  clash  and  clang  of  the  arms  of 
warriors  engaged  in  the  fray ;  but  no  visible  object  met  the 
eye  of  the  astonished  listener.* 

It  is  possible  that  the  details  of  this  memorable  battle 
may  have  fallen  short  of  the  expectations  of  the  reader. 
But  its  importance  must  be  estimated  by  its  effects :  it 
taught  the  Greeks  their  superiority  in  the  field  over  the 
Orientals,  and  led  to  those  victories  which  checked  the 
westward  progress  of  the  Persian  arms.  The  honest  histo- 
rian whom  we  have  followed  does  not  tell  what  the  numbers 
were  on  each  side ;  the  Latin  biographer,  Cornelius  Nepos, 
and  other  late  writers,  state  the  Athenians  at  9000,  the 
Plataeans  at  1000  men  —  probably  the  true  number.f  These 
were  all  hoplites,  for  Herodotus  asserts  that  they  had  neither 
horse  nor  light  troops.  Cornelius  Nepos  also  gives  details 
of  the  battle  at  variance  with  the  narrative  of  Herodotus. 
He  tells  us  that  Miltiades  drew  up  his  army  at  the  foot  of 

*  Paus.  ut  sup.  The  same  is  told  of  the  plain  of  Munda  in  Spain, 
where  Julius  Csesar  defeated  the  younger  Pompeius.  —  See  Mendoza, 
Guerra  de  Granada,  p.  320.  At  the  present  day,  the  shouting  and  the 
hlows  of  the  warriors  at  Marathon  sound  so  loud  in  fancy's  ear,  that  the 
shepherds  abandon  their  flocks  and  seek  shelter.  See  Turner's  Tour  in 
the  Levant,  i.  p.  349. 

t  Nepos  says  that  the  Persians  had  200,000  foot  and  10,000  horse ; 
Pausanias  (iv.  25)  and  Valerius  Maximus  (v.  3)  say  300,000 ;  Plato 
(Menex.  §  10)  500,000;  Justin,  always  in  extremes,  gives  the  whole 
force  at  000,000  men,  of  whom  200,000  perished  !  Let  us  try  to  approach 
the  truth.  The  fleet  consisted  of  GOO  triremes ,  the  crew  of  a  trireme 
was  200  men,  and  it  carried  thirty  soldiers.  Let  us  suppose  that  on  the 
present  occasion  there  were  fifty  soldiers  on  board  of  each  trireme  ; 
we  thus  get  120,000  rowers  and  sailors,  and  30,000  soldiers ;  and  there 
is  nothing  wonderful  in  10,000  Greeks  defeating  30,000  Asiatics.  The 
number  of  horses  in  a  transport  was  usually  thirty ;  but  we  are  not  told 
how  many  transports  there  were. 


BATTLE    OF    MARATHON.  97 

the  mountain,  having  its  flanks,  and  apparently  its  front, 
protected  by  felled  trees,  where  he  sustained  the  charge  of 
the  Persians.  Now,  that  the  Athenians  were  the  assailants 
can  hardly  be  doubted ;  and  we  are  not  sure  that  trees  fit 
for  the  purpose  grew  in  that  part  of  Attica,  a  country  re- 
markably bare  of  timber.  Details  given  by  late  writers 
must,  we  warn  the  reader,  be  always  received  with  caution. 

This  important  victory  of  Marathon  justly  gained  Milti- 
ades  great  influence  at  Athens;  and  when  he  asked  the 
people  to  give  him  seventy  triremes,  with  the  necessary  men 
and  money,  to  go  on  an  expedition  which  would  be  greatly 
for  the  advantage  of  the  state,  they  granted  them  at  once. 
It  was  probably  his  design  to  make  the  isles  pay  for  their 
submission  to  the  Medes ;  private  vengeance,  it  is  said, 
made  him  sail  first  to  Paros,  where  he  laid  siege  to  the  town, 
demanding  one  hundred  talents  as  the  price  of  safety.  Hav- 
ing wasted  the  country  and  besieged  the  town  in  vain  dur- 
ing twenty-six  days,  he  retired,  and  on  his  return  to  Athens 
popular  indignation  was  high  against  him,  and  Xanthippus 
and  others  accused  him  capitally  for  the  deception  he  had 
practised  on  the  people.  As  he  had  had  the  misfortune  to 
break  his  thigh  during  the  siege  of  Paros,  he  was  unable  to 
defend  himself;  but  he  was  brought  in  his  bed  into  the 
assembly,  and  his  friends,  by  reminding  the  people  of  the 
eminent  services  he  had  done  the  state,  caused  the  capital 
charge  to  be  dismissed.  He  was  condemned,  however,  to 
pay  the  usual  fine  of  fifty  talents ;  but  he  died  shortly  after- 
wards, and  his  son  Cimon  paid  the  fine.* 

It  is  usual  to  regard  this  conduct  of  the  Athenians  as  an 

*  Plutarch  (Cimon,  4)  and  Nepos  say  that  he  was  cast  into  prison, 
where  he  died ;  Plato  (Gorgias,  §  153,  Bekk.)  says  that  the  people  voted 
to  cast  him  into  the  pit  named  the  Barathron  to  perish,  and  that  the 
sentence  would  have  been  executed,  had  it  not  been  for  the  Prytanes, 
or  presidents  of  the  assembly.  This  last  account  is  not  very  probable  ; 
and  we  doubt  if  the  authority  of  those  two  careless  biographers  be  suf- 
ficient to  justify  us  in  attributing  to  the  Athenians  (who  were  not  a 
cruel  people)  the  inhumanity  of  casting  a  man  with  a  mortified  limb 
into  prison. 

9  M 


98  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

instance  of  flagrant  ingratitude ;  but  before  we  condemn,  we 
should  be  sure  that  we  know  all  the  circumstances  of  the 
case.  Public  men  are  seldom  actuated  by  a  pure  and  dis- 
interested love  of  their  country ;  and  if  on  one  occasion,  in 
their  pursuit  of  their  own  glory,  they  have  chanced  to  ren- 
der it  some  signal  service,  it  is  not  reasonable  to  expect 
that  this  should  procure  indemnity  for  future  transgres- 
sions. Public  life,  like  private  life,  must  be  pure  in  its 
whole  course,  or  praise  and  reward  will  be  converted  into 
blame  and  punishment. 

In  the  case  of  Miltiades,  we  are  to  recollect  that  he  had 
more  at  stake  than  any  one  else  at  Marathon,  for  the  Per- 
sians regarded  him  as  a  rebel  and  a  traitor,  and  would  have 
dealt  with  him  accordingly.  He  certainly  showed  more 
military  skill  than  some  of  his  colleagues ;  but  in  true 
patriotism  he  was  perhaps  exceeded  by  the  Polemarch. 
There  does  not  appear  any  party  virulence  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  him,  which  was  conducted  by  one  of  the  leading  men 
at  Athens :  he  was  only  treated  like  any  other  citizen. 

Two  rival  statesmen  now  appear  on  the  scene  at  Athens  — 
Aristeides,  the  son  of  Lysimachus,  and  Themistocles,  the  son 
of  Neocles.  The  former,  of  noble  birth,  and  the  intimate 
friend  of  Cleisthenes,  moderate  and  disinterested  in  his  char- 
acter, leaned  to  the  aristocratic  principle ;  his  rival,  of  in- 
ferior birth,  (his  mother  being  a  foreigner,)  courted  more 
the  people  ;  in  integrity  and  moral  dignity  of  character,  he 
was  as  inferior  to  his  rival  as  in  birth  ;  but  his  brilliant 
qualities  gained  the  people,  and  his  influence  soon  became 
considerable  in  the  state. 

Aristeides,  who  was  styled  the  Just,  directed  his  attention 
chiefly  to  the  management  of  the  finances,  and  was  more 
than  once  chosen  archon.  Themistocles  sought  the  more 
showy  station  of  military  command.  After  the  death  of 
Miltiades,  he  obtained  the  command  of  a  fleet,  and  reduced 
the  Cyclad  Isles  to  submission.  While  others  fondly  deemed 
that  the  victory  at  Marathon  had  ended  the  projects  of  the 
Medes   against  Greece,  he,  as  doubtless  did  many  others, 


MARCH    OF    XERXES.  99 

saw  in  it  only  the  prelude  to  greater  conflicts,  for  which  it 
behoved  Athens  to  prepare.  Aware  that  her  situation  and 
character  did  not  qualify  her  to  be  a  land  power,  he  sought 
to  turn  the  thoughts  of  the  people  to  the  augmentation  of 
the  navy.  To  speak  of  the  distant  dangers  from  Persia  he 
knew  would  be  idle ;  but  the  enmity  to  ^Egina  might,  he 
saw,  be  turned  to  advantage.  In  the  very  year  that  Mil- 
tiades  went  against  Paros,  (Ol.  72,  4,)  while  Aristeides  was 
archon,  he  induced  the  people  to  consent  to  the  produce 
of  the  silver  mines  of  Laurion,  which  used  to  be  divided 
among  them,  being  devoted  to  the  building  of  ships  of  war  ; 
and  they  soon  had  a  fleet  of  two  hundred  triremes  afloat  in 
their  harbors.  The  influence  of  Themistocles  was  ere  long 
so  great,  that  he  was  able  to  turn  the  weapon  of  ostracism 
against  his  rival,  and  Aristeides  was  obliged  to  go  into 
honorable  banishment.     (Ol.  74,  2.)  * 


CHAPTER   Xl.t 

MARCH  OF   XERXES. PREPARATIONS  OF  THE  GREEKS. 

BATTLE  OF  THERMOPYLAE.  BATTLE  OF  THE   ARTEMI- 

SION.  ATTEMPT  ON  DELPHI. 

What  Themistocles  had  foreseen  came  to  pass.  It  is  not 
the  character  of  despotic  princes  to  give  over  a  contest  be- 
cause their  arms  have  received  a  check.  Darius  was  bent 
more  than  ever  on  the  subjugation  of  Greece ;  and  during 
three  years,  troops  and  ships,  stores  and  corn,  were  collected 
for  another  and  a  greater  armament  against  that  country. 
But  when  all  was  nearly  ready,  a  rebellion  broke  out  in 
Egypt ;  and  then  a  dispute  about  the  succession  to  the  throne 

*  Plut.  Themist.  4. 

t  Herod,  vii.  viii.  1 — 39 ;  Diodorus  xi. ;  Plut.  Themist. 


100  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

between  his  sons  called  his  thoughts  away  from  Greece. 
Having  arranged  the  succession,  he  was  preparing  for  civil 
and  foreign  wars,  when  death  surprised  him  in  the  thirty- 
seventh  year  of  his  reign.  (Ol.  73,  4.) 

Xerxes,  the  son  of  Darius  by  Atossa,  daughter  of  Cyrus, 
succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Persia.  His  first  thoughts  were 
directed  to  the  reduction  of  Egypt,  and  he  gave  but  little 
heed  to  the  affairs  of  Greece.  But  Mardonius,  his  hot  and 
ambitious  cousin,  kept  urging  him  to  the  subjugation  of 
Europe ;  the  Peisistratids  were  also  at  the  court  of  Susa, 
and  showed  oracles  portending  conquests  to  the  arms  of 
Persia;  and  envoys  from  the  Aleuads,  the  princes  of 
Thessaly,  who  feared  for  their  own  power  from  the  growth 
of  republican  principles  in  Greece,  called  on  him  to  come 
and  receive  their  submission.  The  young  monarch  lent  an 
ear  to  these  inducements,  and  in  the  second  year  of  his 
reign,  the  Egyptians  having  been  reduced  to  obedience,  he 
assembled  a  council  to  consider  of  the  invasion  of  Greece. 

The  king  spoke,  enumerating  the  injuries  which  the  realm 
had  sustained  from  the  Greeks,  and  drawing  a  flattering  pic- 
ture of  the  extent  which  a  conquest  of  this  people,  who  were 
the  only  impediment  to  that  of  Europe,  would  give  the  em- 
pire. He  was  followed  by  Mardonius,  speaking  slightingly 
of  the  Greeks,  and  dwelling  on  the  facility  of  the  enterprise. 
But  on  the  other  side  rose  Artabanus,  brother  of  Darius  and 
uncle  of  the  king,  who  showed  the  danger,  the  difficulty, 
and  the  folly  of  the  expedition.  Xerxes  kindled  in  wrath, 
and  was  only  withheld  from  injuring  him  by  respect  for  his 
father's  brother.  The  council  broke  up ;  dreams  at  night 
came  to  the  monarch  and  to  Artabanus,  and  the  latter,  con- 
vinced that  the  war  was  the  will  of  heaven,  ceased  to  op- 
pose it.* 

Four  years  were  still  employed  in  making  preparations 
for  the  conquest  of  Europe.     Provisions  of  all  kinds  were 

*  The  whole  account  of  the  councils  and  affairs  of  Persia  given  by 
Herodotus  has  such  an  Oriental  air  that  he  must  have  derived  it  from 
Persian  authorities. 


MARCH    OF    XERXES.  101 

conveyed  by  the  maritime  subjects  of  the  empire  to  the  coast 
of  Thrace,  and  laid  up  in  the  towns  there.  A  ship-canal, 
wide  enough  to  let  two  triremes  go  abreast,  was  cut  across 
the  Isthmus,  of  seven  stadia  in  width,  which  connects  Mount 
Athos  with  the  main  land ;  cables  and  all  things  necessary 
for  the  construction  of  bridges  of  boats  were  brought  from 
Egypt  and  Phoenicia. 

At  length,  (01.  74,  4,)  the  immense  army  of  the  lord  of 
the  East  was  assembled  in  the  plains  of  Cappadocia.  The 
monarch  set  forth  from  Susa,  and  at  its  head  crossed  the 
Halys,  marched  through  Phrygia,  and  came  to  Celoenae  in 
Lydia,  where  he  and  his  entire  army  were  entertained  by 
a  Lydian,  of  noble  birth,  named  Pytheas,  who  offered  the 
whole  of  his  immense  wealth  for  the  war.  But  Xerxes  gen- 
erously added  to  the  riches  he  would  not  accept.  The  host 
moved  thence  to  Sardes,  where  the  king  passed  the  winter. 
While  here,  he  sent  heralds  to  all  parts  of  Greece  but  Athens 
and  Lacedsemon,  demanding  earth  and  water,  and  ordering 
them  to  prepare  a  supper  for  the  king. 

Meanwhile,  the  Egyptians  and  Phoenicians  were  bridging 
over  the  Hellespont  at  Abydos,  where  the  breadth  is  seven 
stadia ;  but  a  tempest  came  on  and  broke  their  work  asun- 
der. Then,  say  the  Greeks,  Xerxes  kindled  in  ire ;  he  or- 
dered the  heads  of  those  who  were  over  the  work  to  be  cut 
off,  and  he  sent  persons  charged  to  give  three  hundred 
lashes  to  the  unruly  Hellespont,  to  cast  into  it  a  pair  of 
golden  fetters,  to  rebuke  it  for  its  insolence,  and  to  say  that 
the  king  would  pass  whether  it  would  or  not.  The  bridge 
was  then  renewed  and  completed.  It  was  built  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner.  On  the  side  next  the  Propontis  (whence 
the  stream  flows)  they  ranged  three  hundred  and  sixty  tri- 
remes, and  fifty-oar  vessels,  lengthways  across  the  stream, 
and  three  hundred  and  fourteen  on  the  other  side,  facing  down 
it ;  all  secured  by  anchors,  and  cables  were  stretched  along 
them.  Three  narrow  passages  were  left  for  small  vessels. 
The  whole  was  made  fast  to  the  shore  on  either  side  by  thick 
cables.  Pieces  of  timber,  sawn  to  the  due  length,  were 
9* 


102  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

laid  along  the  cables ;  over  these  were  spread  branches  of 
trees  and  brushwood,  which  were  covered  with  earth,  and 
bulwarks  were  raised  along  each  side,  lest  the  sight  of  the 
sea  should  terrify  the  horses  and  beasts  of  burden.* 

In  the  following  spring,  (OI.  75,  1,)  Xerxes  led  his  host 
from  Sardes.  As  he  was  setting  forth,  the  sun  became 
eclipsed,  which  the  Magians  said  portended  to  Greece  the 
failure  (eclipse)  of  their  cities  before  the  king  —  a  response 
which  filled  the  monarch  with  joy.  Ere  he  departed,  Pyth- 
eas  came  before  him,  and  prayed  him,  on  account  of  his 
advanced  age,  to  allow  the  eldest  of  his  five  sons  to  remain 
with  him.  The  despot  was  inflamed  with  ire,  and  telling 
Pytheas  that  his  hospitality  alone  saved  his  other  sons,  he 
had  the  eldest  seized  and  cut  in  two,  and  the  army  marched 
between  the  severed  parts  of  his  body.t 

The  order  of  the  march  was  as  follows.  First  went  the 
beasts  of  burden  and  the  baggage  drivers ;  then  a  mass  of 
troops  of  various  nations,  without  any  certain  order;  1000 
chosen  Persian  horsemen  followed;  after  these  came  1000 
chosen  spearsmen,  carrying  their  spears  points  downwards ; 
next  were  led  ten  stately  Nissean  horses  J  richly  caparisoned; 
the  chariot  of  Zeus,  (Ormuzd,§)  drawn  by  ten  white  horses, 
followed,  the  driver  on  foot,  holding  the  reins  in  his  hands ; 
and  then  came  the  monarch  himself,  in  a  car  drawn  by 
Nissean  horses;  1000  Persian  spearsmen,  of  the  noblest  fam- 
ilies, followed  the  king ;  1000  chosen  horsemen  succeeded ; 
then  came  10,000  Persian  footmen,  (the  Immortals,)  1000 
with  golden,  the  remainder  with  silver  pomegranates  on 
the  butts  of  their  spears;    10,000  Persian  horse  followed. 

*  There  is  some  difficulty  in  Herodotus's  description  of  this  bridge. 
It  would  appear  that  there  were  two  roads,  one  over  each  rank  of  ships. 
See  the  account  of  the  passage  presently  to  be  given. 

t  As  Herodotus  tells  a  similar  story  of  Darius,  a  mild  and  merciful 
prince,  it  is  probably  true  neither  of  him  nor  of  Xerxes. 

t  Horses  of  a  superior  breed  from  Nisa  in  Media. 

§  In  the  religious  system  of  Persia,  Ormuzd  was  the  good  principle, 
the  lord  of  light  and  happiness;  his  opposite  was  Ahriman,  the  prince 
of  darkness. 


MARCH    OF    XERXES.  103 

With  an  interval  of  two  stadia,  the  rest  of  the  army  came 
behind. 

In  this  order  the  army  marched  though  Lydia  and  My- 
sia;  and  leaving  Mount  Ida  on  the  left,  came  to  the  Troas, 
where  the  famed  Scamander  failed  them  as  they  drank. 
Xerxes  ascended  and  sacrificed  on  the  place  where  Troy 
had  stood.  Soon  the  host  spread  along  the  Straits  of  Helle. 
A  throne  of  marble  was  set  on  an  eminence  near  Abydos, 
on  which  the  king  sat  and  viewed  the  tents  and  banners  of 
the  myriads  who  marched  at  his  command  :  men  and  horses 
in  countless  numbers  covered  the  plain ;  the  bridge  which 
joined  the  two  continents  stretched  before  him ;  his  nume- 
rous navy,  engaged  in  a  sham-battle,  gratified  the  lord  of 
Asia  with  their  skilful  evolutions.  As  he  gazed,  his  heart 
distended  with  pride,  and  he  gloried  in  his  strength :  but 
soon  tears  were  seen  to  gush  from  his  eyes ;  Artabanus 
drew  nigh,  and  inquired  the  cause  :  "  I  weep,"  said  the 
monarch,  "  to  think  that  a  hundred  years  hence  not  one  of 
these  will  be  alive." 

On  the  following  day,  as  the  sun  rose,  Xerxes  poured 
from  a  golden  cup  a  libation  into  the  sea,  and  prayed  the 
lord  of  day,  the  glorious  Mithra,*  to  guard  him  from  all 
peril  in  his  progress.  He  then  cast  into  the  sea  the  cup  he 
held,  a  golden  bowl,  (crater,)  and  a  Persian  cimeter.  In- 
cense fumed  all  along  the  bridge,  which  was  strown  with 
boughs  of  myrtle.  The  passage  then  began :  on  the  left 
side  of  the  bridge  moved  the  beasts  of  burden  and  the  ser- 
vants ;  on  the  right,  the  troops,  both  horse  and  foot.  The 
10,000  Persian  footmen,  all  wearing  garlands,  led  the  way; 
a  mingled  host  followed.  Next  day  the  Persian  horse  and 
spearsmen,  also  crowned,  passed  the  first;  and  after  them 
the  sacred  horses  and  chariot,  the  king  himself,  the  spears- 
men, and  the  1000  horse.  Seven  days  and  nights  lasted  this 
passage  of  Asia  into  Europe,  the  lash  quickening  the  pace 
of  the  tardy. 

*  So  the  Persians  called  the  Sun-god. 


104  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

When  the  whole  host  had  passed,  the  march  was  resumed, 
the  fleet  sailing  along  the  coast.  The  waters  of  the  Melas 
failed,  like  those  of  the  Scamander.  The  host  passed  the 
Hebrus  and  reached  Doriscus ;  and  here,  where  a  wide  plain 
and  a  long  shore  extended,  the  monarch  resolved  to  num- 
ber and  review  his  troops  and  his  navy.  The  ships  were 
for  this  purpose  all  drawn  on  shore  along  the  extensive 
beach.  To  number  the  land  troops  the  following  plan  was 
devised.  A  myriad  of  men  were  placed  in  as  close  a  man- 
ner as  they  could  stand,  and  a  circle  was  drawn  round  them. 
They  were  then  dismissed,  and  a  dry  stone  wall  was  built 
on  the  circle  as  high  as  a  man's  waist.  Myriad  after  myriad 
the  army  entered  the  enclosure,  and  the  whole  was  found 
to  amount  to  a  hundred  and  seventy  myriads  ! 

The  Persians,  the  Medes,  the  Cissians,  the  Bactrians,  Hyr- 
canians,  Sacians,  Arians,  Parthians,  Chorasmians,  Sogdians, 
and  other  neighboring  peoples,  were  armed  and  clad  in 
nearly  the  same  manner.  They  wore  limber  caps  named 
tiaras  on  their  heads,  tunics  with  sleeves  covered  with  iron 
scales,  and  trousers.  They  bore  four-cornered  shields  covered 
with  raw  ox-hide,  (y^ga,)  short  spears,  quivers,  bows,  and 
arrows  of  reed,  and  daggers  hanging  at  the  right  side. 
The  Assyrians  wore  brazen  helmets  of  a  peculiar  fashion ; 
their  shields,  spears,  and  swords  were  like  those  of  the 
Egyptians ;  their  corselets  were  of  linen,  and  they  carried 
clubs  headed  with  iron.  The  Indians  were  clad  in  cotton, 
with  bows  and  arrows  of  cane.  The  Arabs  wore  zeirm, 
(£eiQuly)  or  coats  reaching  to  the  feet,  and  carried  long  bows. 
The  ^Ethiopians  were  clad  in  the  skins  of  lions  and  leopards; 
when  going  into  battle  they  painted  their  bodies  half  red, 
half  white;  their  bows,  of  six  feet  in  length,  were  the  pe- 
duncles of  the  palm  leaves,  from  which  they  shot  small  reed- 
arrows  headed  with  hard  stone ;  their  short  spears  were 
headed  with  antelope-horn,  and  they  carried  knotty  sticks. 
The  Libyans  were  clad  in  leather,  and  used  darts  of  wood 
hardened  in  the  fire.  The  Paphlagonians,  Lygians,  Mari- 
andyniaii3,  Phrygians,   and  other  peoples   of  Lesser   Asia, 


MARCH    OF    XERXES.  105 

wore  helmets,  and  had  small  shields  and  spears,  with  darts 
and  swords,  and  boots  coming  half  up  the  leg.  The  Lydi- 
ans  were  armed  like  the  Greeks.  The  Bithynians  had  caps 
of  fox-skin,  and  fawn-skin  buskins;  they  wore  tunics,  over 
which  were  zeirce  of  various  colors  ;  they  carried  darts, 
four-cornered  shields,  and  short  swords.  The  Moschi,  Ti- 
bareni,  Macrones,  and  Mosynceci  had  helmets  of  wood, 
small  shields,  and  short  spears  with  long  heads.  The  Col- 
chians  and  Mares  had  shields  covered  with  hide,  wooden 
helmets,  and  short  spears :  the  Colchians  bore,  moreover, 
heavy  swords.  The  islanders  from  the  Erythrean  Sea  were 
clad  and  armed  like  the  Medes :  these  were  the  infantry,  — 
a  hundred  and  seventy  myriads  in  number.  The  flower  of 
the  army  were  the  10,000  Persians,  named  the  Immortals, 
because  their  number  was  always  kept  up  at  its  full  amount. 
They  had  peculiar  privileges,  were  richly  attired,  and  were, 
in  effect,  the  Guards  of  the  Persian  army;  their  leader  was 
Hydarnes. 

The  Persians,  Medes,  Cissians,  Bactrians,  and  Caspians 
furnished  cavalry  armed  and  clothed  like  the  infantry.  Of 
these  the  most  remarkable  were  the  Sagartians,  a  Persian 
tribe,  who  gave  8000  horse ;  they  used  no  arms  but  daggers, 
but  they  carried  a  long  chain  of  leather,  with  a  noose  on 
the  end  of  it,*  which  they  flung,  and  caught  men  or  horses, 
whom  they  then  despatched.  The  Indians  sent  single  horse- 
men, and  chariots  drawn  by  horses  and  wild  asses.  The 
Libyans  also  drove  war-chariots.  The  Arabians  rode  on 
camels  fleet  as  horses.  Eight  myriads  was  the  number  of 
the  cavalry,  exclusive  of  the  chariots  and  camels. 

The  Egyptians  sent  200  triremes ;  the  people  of  Palestine 
and  Phoenicia,  300 ;  the  Cyprians,  150 ;  the  Cilicians,  100 ; 
the  Pamphylians,  30;  the  Lycians,  50;  the  Dorians  of  Asia, 
30;  the  Carians,  70 ;  the  Ionians,  100;    the  islanders,  17; 

*  This  is  the  kamund,  or  noose,  borne  by  the  heroes  in  the  Persian 
heroic  poem,  the  Shah-Nameh  of  Ferdousee.  See  the  tale  of  "  Roostem 
and  Soohrab,"  in  the  author's  "  Tales  and  Popular  Fictions,"  particu- 
larly the  note  at  page  152. 

N 


106  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  iEolians,  60 ;  the  Hellespontians,  100.  The  whole  num- 
ber of  triremes  was  1207;  that  of  the  smaller  vessels  and 
transports  was  3000.  Persians,  Medes,  and  Sacians  were  on 
board  the  triremes  to  fight  them.  The  Sidonian  ships  were 
the  best;  next  to  these  the  five  triremes  which  Artemisia, 
the  brave  queen  of  Halicarnassus,  commanded  in  person. 

When  Xerxes  had  driven  in  his  chariot  from  nation  to 
nation,  and  reviewed  his  entire  army,  he  got  on  board  a  Si- 
donian vessel,  where  he  sat  under  a  golden  canopy,  and  sailed 
along  by  the  prows  of  the  ships,  which  were  anchored  for 
the  purpose  in  a  line  four  plethra  (four  hundred  feet)  from 
the  land,  with  their  prows  turned  to  the  shore. 

The  review  being  completed,  the  word  was  given  to  set 
forward.  The  army  marched  in  three  parallel  divisions ;  the 
towns  on  the  way  were  ruined  by  the  quantity  of  provisions 
they  were  forced  to  supply ;  the  Lissus,  the  Echedorus,  and 
other  streams  were  drunk  dry.  All  the  tribes  of  Thrace 
were  forced  to  march  in  the  train  of  the  Great  King,  and 
swell  the  number  of  his  array.  At  length  the  host  encamped 
at  the  head  of  the  Thermai'c  Gulf  in  Macedonia.  Here  the 
king  was  met  by  the  heralds  whom  he  had  sent  to  Greece. 
They  brought  him  the  submissions  of  the  Thessalians,  Do- 
lopians,  ^Enians,  Perrhsebians,  Magnetes,  Melians,  Phthio- 
tic  Achoeans,  Locrians,  and  the  Thebans,  and  all  the  other 
Boeotians  but  the  Thespians  and  Platoeans. 

It  is  now  time  that  we  should  direct  our  view  to  Athens 
and  Lacedsemon,  whose  destruction  was  menaced  by  this 
formidable  host.  As  soon  as  it  was  ascertained  that  Xerxes 
was  about  to  lead  the  forces  of  the  East  for  the  subjugation 
of  Greece,  the  Athenians,  whose  conduct  in  this  war  we 
shall  find  to  exceed  all  praise,  sent  to  consult  the  oracle  at 
Delphi.  The  response  in  dark  and  dubious  terms  announced 
the  destruction  of  towns,  the  conflagration  of  temples. 
Filled  with  terror,  they  implored  a  more  favorable  oracle 
for  their  country.  The  god  replied,  that  Zeus  would  only 
grant  to  the  prayers  of  Pallas  the  safety  of  the  wooden  wall, 
and    announced  that  "divine   Salamis"  would  destroy  the 


PREPARATIONS    OF    THE    GREEKS.  107 

children  of  women.  This  response,  when  brought  to  Athens, 
gave  rise  to  great  doubts  as  to  its  meaning.  Some  of  the 
aged  people,  calling  to  mind  that  the  Acropolis  had  of  old 
been  surrounded  by  a  thorn-hedge,  thought  that  it  was  the 
place  of  safety  indicated ;  others  said  it  was  the  fleet  that 
was  meant;  but  as  destruction  at  Salamis  seemed  to  be 
menaced,  they  advised  to  get  on  shipboard  and  fly  to  some 
distant  country.  Themistocles  said,  that  if  the  god  meant 
evil  to  Greece,  he  would  have  said  "pernicious,"  (crx8T^Vt) 
and  not  "  divine,"  (Oeh]})  Salamis,  and  that  the  oracle  was 
against  the  foe.  His  opinion  prevailed,  and  they  resolved 
to  man  their  triremes  and  fight  for  independence.  It  was 
decreed  to  build  more  ships  immediately. 

A  council  was  held  at  the  Isthmus  by  the  friends  of  the 
independence  of  Hellas,  and  it  was  determined  to  call  on 
the  Argives,  the  Cretans,  the  Corcyraeans,  and  Gelon,  the 
tyrant  of  Syracuse  in  Sicily,  to  aid  the  common  cause. 
Spies  were  also  sent  to  Sardes  to  ascertain  the  real  strength 
of  the  enemy.  These  spies  were  seized  by  the  Persian  gen- 
erals, who  were  about  to  put  them  to  death;  but  Xerxes 
proudly  ordered  that  they  should  be  led  through  the  host, 
and  then  dismissed  in  safety  to  tell  of  the  might  of  the  lord 
of  Asia. 

The  Argives,  according  to  their  own  account,  had  sent  to 
consult  the  god  at  Delphi,  and  the  response  had  been  to 
guard  their  head,  and  they  would  be  safe.  They,  however, 
offered  to  join,  if  the  Lacedaemonians  would  make  a  thirty 
years'  truce  with  them,  and  give  them  the  command  of  half 
the  army.  The  truce  they  required  lest,  if  any  thing  should 
befall  them  in  the  war,  the  Lacedaemonians  might  attack 
and  conquer  them  before  their  sons  were  grown  up.  The 
Spartan  envoys  replied,  that  they  would  lay  the  truce  be- 
fore the  general  assembly  at  Sparta ;  as  to  the  command, 
as  they  had  two  kings  and  the  Argives  but  one,  they  could 
only  let  him  be  of  equal  authority  with  them.  The  Argives 
forthwith  ordered  them  to  quit  the  city  before  sunset.  They 
deemed  it,  they  said,  better  to  obey  the  Barbarians  than  to 


108  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

yield  to  the  Lacedaemonians.  According  to  another  account, 
the  Argives  had  already  contracted  an  engagement  with 
Xerxes. 

The  Cretans  also  sent  to  Delphi,  and  the  god  advised  them, 
as  they  interpreted  the  response,  to  abstain  from  the  war. 
The  Corcyraeans  readily  promised  aid,  and  manned  sixty 
triremes ;  but  they  loitered  off  the  coast  of  Messene  till  the 
great  naval  action  was  fought,  to  make  a  merit  of  it  with  the 
Persian  if  he  won,  to  be  able  to  say  to  the  Greeks  if  the  vic- 
tory was  theirs,  that  adverse  winds  alone  had  prevented  them 
from  doubling  Cape  Malea  and  sharing  in  it. 

Gelon,  the  powerful  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  reminded  the  en- 
voys how,  when  he  was  in  straits,  in  a  war  with  the  Cartha- 
ginians, he  had  sought  aid  from  Greece  in  vain;  he  offered, 
nevertheless,  to  join  with  200  triremes,  10,000  hoplites,  2000 
horse,  and  6000  archers,  slingers,  and  light  horse,  and  to 
supply  corn  for  the  whole  Grecian  army  during  the  war,  if 
they  would  give  him  the  supreme  command.  The  Spartan 
envoy  haughtily  refused.  Gelon  then  offered  to  be  content 
with  the  command  either  by  sea  or  by  land ;  but  the  Atheni- 
ans declared  they  would  yield  the  command  at  sea  only  to 
the  Spartans.  Offended  at  their  haughtiness,  the  Sicilian 
bade  them  go  back  and  tell  to  Greece  that  they  had  taken  the 
spring  out  of  the  year  ;  meaning  his  own  troops,  which  were 
to  the  Grecian  army  what  the  spring  is  to  the  year.  It  was 
said,  however,  by  the  Sicilians,  that  he  would  have  sent  aid, 
but  that  he  was  engaged  in  a  war  with  the  Carthaginians. 

The  Thessalians  were  at  first  true  to  Greece.  They  sent 
to  the  Isthmus  requesting  that  a  body  of  troops  might  be 
sent  to  guard  the  Vale  of  Tempe,  and  offering  to  join  their 
cavalry  with  it.  This  offer  was  readily  accepted ;  ten  thou- 
sand hoplites,  commanded  by  Euaenetus,  a  Spartan  polemarch, 
and  by  Themistocles  the  Athenian,  got  on  shipboard,  and 
landing  on  the  coast  of  the  Phthiotic  Achaia,  marched 
through  Thessaly  to  Tempe.  But  when  Alexander  the 
Macedonian  sent  to  tell  them  that  it  was  madness  to  stay 
there,  and  they  learned  also  that  there  was  another  entrance 


PREPARATIONS    OF    THE    GREEKS.  109 

from  Macedonia,  through  Perrhcebia,  at  Gonnos,  the  Greek 
commanders  reembarked  their  troops  and  went  back  to  the 
Isthmus.  The  Thessalians,  thus  left  to  themselves,  sought 
their  safety  in  medism.  The  council  at  the  Isthmus  then 
resolved  to  guard  the  passage  at  Thermopylae,  while  the 
fleet  should  lie  at  the  Artemision,*  or  shore  of  Eubcea,  op- 
posite the  Bay  of  Pagasae,  to  oppose  the  progress  of  the  Per- 
sian fleet.  This  fleet  meantime  had  weighed  anchor,  and  was 
sailing  down  the  Thermaic  Gulf.  The  Greeks,  on  hearing 
of  its  numbers,  were  seized  with  dread,  and  leaving  the  Ar- 
temision,  retired  to  the  Euripus,  the  narrow  strait  between 
Eubcea  and  Boeotia.  The  Persians  sailed  leisurely  between 
the  Isle  of  Sciathos  and  the  land,  and  anchored  at  Sepias 
and  along  the  coast  of  Magnesia.  Xerxes  conducted  his 
troops  through  Upper  Macedonia,  entered  Thessaly  at  Gon- 
nos, marched  through  it  unopposed,  and  finally  spread  his 
tents  and  pavilions  in  Melis  before  the  pass  of  Thermopylae. 
The  historian,  whose  guidance  we  follow,  takes  a  survey 
of  the  land  and  sea  forces  of  the  Persian  monarch  while 
they  are  complete  and  unimpaired,  and  he  gives  the  follow- 
ing results.  Reckoning  200  men  to  each  of  the  1207  tri- 
remes, their  crews  amounted  to  241,400  men ;  there  were 
besides,  30  soldiers  on  board  of  each,  which  made  36,210. 
Calculating  the  3000  small  craft  at  80  men  apiece,  they  car- 
ried 240,000,  —  in  all,  517,610  men.  There  were  1,700,000 
foot,  and  80,000  horse,  and  20,000  Libyans  and  Arabians 
with  chariots  and  camels.  The  Greeks  along  the  coasts  and 
isles  of  Thrace  had  to  furnish  120  ships,  carrying  24,000 
men;  and  the  Thracians,  Macedonians,  and  other  subject 
peoples,  increased  the  host  by  300,000  men.  The  whole 
army  of  Xerxes,  therefore,  amounted  to  2,641,610  men.  The 
crowd  of  camp-followers,  sutlers,  etc.,  the  women  and 
eunuchs  not  included,  he  reckons  at  an  equal  number ;  so 
that  the  whole  amount  was  5,283,220 !  —  a  most  monstrous 

*  So  named,  as  being  sacred  to  the  goddess  Artemis,  who  had  a  tem- 
ple there.     (Herod,  vii.  176.) 

10 


110  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

exaggeration  of  Persian  and  Grecian  vanity  combined ;  for 

OB 

Greece  never  did  and  never  could  contain  a  population  equal 
to  what  was  assembled,  according  to  this  account,  in  the 
valley  of  the  Spercheius.* 

The  Persian  fleet,  the  very  first  night  it  anchored  on  the 
coast  of  Magnesia,  was  assailed  by  a  furious  tempest  from  the 
east,  which  lasted  for  three  days,  and  destroyed  not  less  than 
four  hundred  ships  and  a  vast  number  of  the  smaller  vessels. 
The  Greeks,  on  learning  their  loss,  took  courage,  and  return- 
ed to  the  Artemision ;  but  the  Barbarians,  as  soon  as  the  wind 
fell,  got  round  into  the  Pagasaean  Bay,  and  anchored  at  Aphe- 
tae.  Fifteen  vessels  loitered  behind,  and  taking  the  Greek 
fleet  at  the  Artemision  for  their  own,  were  captured. 

A   narrow   pass   leads   from   Thessaly   into   Greece.     Its 

*  Isocrates  (Panathen.  §  17)  gives  5,000,000  as  the  number  of  the  en- 
tire land-force,  of  whom  700,000  were  fighting-men.  Trogus  Pompeius 
(see  Justin)  reduces  the  number  to  1,000,000,  but  probably  without  any 
authority.  Mr.  Clinton  (Fasti  Hellenici,  i.  386)  makes  the  greatest 
population  of  ancient  Greece  3,500,000.  Of  the  number  of  followers 
of  an  Eastern  army,  Gillies  gives  the  following  instance :  an  Anglo- 
Indian  army  of  6727  officers  and  men,  had  a  train  of  19,779  servants 
and  followers. 

In  reality,  it  is  hard  to  conceive  that  the  entire  land-force  of  Xerxes 
could  have  exceeded,  if  it  even  equalled,  that  which  he  is  said  to  have 
left  with  Mardonius  after  his. defeat  at  Salamis.  We  shall  find  that  in 
Ol.  115,  4,  an  army  of  25,000  men  could  not  be  kept  in  Attica;  yet 
Xerxes,  and  afterwards  Mardonius,  remained  there  for  some  time.  When 
we  consider  the  semi-epic  character  of  Herodotus's  work,it  will  not  seem 
improbable  that,  in  his  catalogue  of  the  Persian  forces,  he  was  vying  with 
Homer,  and  making  a  display  of  his  geographical  knowledge.  The 
.  opinion  of  Heeren,  adopted  by  Mr.  Thirlwall,  (Hist,  of  Greece,  ii.  254,) 
that  Herodotus  drew  his  account  of  the  numbers  and  equipments  of 
the  various  troops  from  the  lists  formed  by  the  royal  secretaries  at  the 
review  at  Doriscus,  does  not  appear  to  us  well  founded.  It  has  surprised 
us  also  to  find,  that  neither  of  these  able  writers  considers  the  numbers 
of  the  Persian  forces  to  be  greatly  exaggerated ;  yet  surely,  if  ever  there 
was  a  palpable  exaggeration,  this  is  one.  We  recollect  nothing  in  Orien- 
tal history,  or  even  Oriental  romance,  that  approaches  it.  The  enormous 
army  of  Xerxes  vanishes,  like  those  in  romance,  after  Salamis,  leaving 
no  more  trace  than  the  snowdrift  after  a  sudden  thaw. 


BATTLE    OF    THERMOPYLAE.  Ill 

length  is  about  five  English  miles,  its  breadth,  where  narrow- 
est, does  not  exceed  sixty  paces.  The  west  side  of  this  pass 
is  formed  by  the  steep  declivity  of  Mount  CEta ;  marshes 
and  the  sea  bound  it  on  the  east.  About  the  middle  of  it 
are  the  hot  springs  which  give  it  its  name  of  Thermopylae, 
and  a  small  plain,  at  either  end  of  which  it  contracts  again. 
At  the  northern  end  of  the  pass  was  a  wall  nearly  in  ruins, 
which  had  been  formerly  erected  by  the  Phocians  to  defend 
their  country  against  the  Thessalians. 

When  Xerxes  reached  Thermopylae,  he  found  a  small  army 
there  ready  to  dispute  the  passage.  This  army  consisted  of 
300  Spartan  hoplites,  1000  fromTegea  and  Mantineia,  1120 
from  the  rest  of  Arcadia,  400  from  Corinth,  200  from  Phlius, 
and  80  from  Mycenae,  —  in  all  3100  Peloponnesians,  and 
commanded  by  Leonidas,  one  of  the  kings  of  Sparta.  With 
these  were  700  Thespians,  and  400  Thebans  from  Bceotia  ; 
the  Phocians  came  1000  in  number,  and  all  the  Opuntian 
Locrians.  It  was  not  expected  that  this  small  force  would 
be  able  effectually  to  resist  the  Persians;  but  it  was  the  in- 
tention of  the  Spartans,  as  soon  as  the  feast  of  the  Carnea, 
which  they  were  then  celebrating,  was  over,  to  march  thither 
with  all  their  powers.  It  was  not  known  that  there  was 
another  way  over  the  mountain  into  Greece,  and  it  was 
thought  that  this  force  might  hold  out  a  sufficient  time. 

At  the  nearer  approach  of  the  Persians,  the  Peloponne- 
sians, who  had  heard  of  the  path  over  the  mountain,  and 
also  dreaded  their  immense  numbers,  were  for  retiring  and 
defending  the  Isthmus ;  but  at  the  prayer  of  the  Phocians 
and  Locrians,  Leonidas  detained  them.  Xerxes,  on  his  side, 
sent  forward  a  horseman  to  examine  the  position  of  the 
Greeks.  The  Spartans  happening  at  that  time  to  be  posted 
outside  of  the  wall  which  they  had  repaired,  the  Persian,  to 
his  surprise,  beheld  them  amusing  themselves  with  gymnic 
exercises,  and  carefully  combing  out  their  long  hair.  The 
king  asked  Demaratus,  who  was  with  him,  the  meaning  of 
this  practice,  and  he  assured  him  that  it  denoted  their  de- 
termination to  combat  to  death.     Xerxes  heeded  him  not, 


112  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

and  having  waited  four  days  in  expectation  of  their  flight, 
sent  a  body  of  Medes  and  Cissians,  with  orders  to  take  them 
and  bring  them  before  him ;  but  after  having  continued  their 
attacks  for  the  entire  day,  they  were  obliged  to  retire  with 
loss.  The  Immortals  were  next  sent :  by  a  feigned  flight 
the  Greeks  drew  them  into  the  pass,  where  their  numbers 
could  not  avail  them,  and  then  turning  made  great  havock 
among  them ;  but  they  sustained,  on  this  occasion,  some  loss 
themselves.  Xerxes,  it  is  said,  leaped  from  his  throne  in  dis- 
may when  he  saw  his  Guards  thus  defeated.  The  following 
day  the  assault  was  renewed,  as  it  was  thought  that  a  great 
number  of  the  Greeks  must  be  disabled  by  their  wounds  ; 
but  the  resistance  was  as  vigorous  as  ever.  This  obstinate 
defence  of  the  Greeks  perplexed  the  Persian  monarch,  as  he 
saw  that  his  army  might  thus  be  destroyed  in  detail.  A 
traitor,  however,  soon  relieved  him  from  his  apprehensions ; 
for  a  Melian,  named  Ephialtes,  came  and  informed  him  that 
there  was  a  path  leading  over  the  mountain,  along  which  he 
offered  to  conduct  a  body  of  Persian  troops.  Xerxes  joyfully 
accepted  this  offer;  the  Immortals  were  selected  for  this 
service,  and  at  night-fall  they  set  out  under  the  guidance  of 
Ephialtes. 

This  path  ran  up  the  mountain,  at  first  along  the  little 
stream  Asopus,  and  it  came  out  at  the  town  Alpenus  at  the 
southern  end  of  the  pass.  Leonidas,  when  he  learned  its 
existence,  had  confided  the  charge  of  it  to  the  Phocians,  and 
they  had  taken  their  station  on  the  summit. 

At  break  of  day,  the  Persians  reached  the  summit  unper- 
ceived.  But  as  the  mountain  was  covered  with  trees,  and 
the  summer  air  was  perfectly  still,  the  Phocians  now  heard 
the  sound  of  their  tread  on  the  leaves  which  lay  on  the  ground. 
They  instantly  took  to  their  arms ;  the  Persians,  who  had 
not  expected  to  meet  any  resistance,  were  daunted  at  first, 
but  the  showers  of  their  arrows  soon  drove  off  the  Phocians, 
who  retired  to  the  highest  point  of  the  mountain.  The 
Persians  then  went  down  with  all  speed  to  get  in  the  rear  of 
the  Greeks,  who  meantime  had  learned  their  impending  fate. 


BATTLE    OF    THERMOPYLAE.  1  13 

As  the  soothsayer  Megistias  viewed  the  victims  in  the  evening, 
he  told  them  they  were  to  die  in  the  morning.  Deserters 
arrived  during  the  night  with  tidings  of  the  treason  ;  at  day- 
break the  sentinels  came  down  from  the  mountain  to  an- 
nounce the  approach  of  the  foes.  Leonid  as  saw  that  all  was 
over,  and  he  deemed  it  useless  to  squander  blood  in  vain  : 
himself  and  his  Spartans  must  remain  and  fall,  for  their  laws 
forbade  retreat ;  the  Thebans,  as  their  state  had  mediscd,  he 
resolved  should  share  their  fate ;  the  rest  he  desired  to  return 
to  their  homes.  All  obeyed  except  the  gallant  Thespians, 
who  would  not  quit  the  Spartans.  The  Thebans  remained 
against  their  will.  The  soothsayer,  an  Acarnanian,  would 
stay,  but  he  sent  home  his  only  son. 

In  the  morning,  Xerxes  sent  troops  to  attack  the  Greeks, 
who  now,  resolved  on  death,  came  boldly  out  from  the  pass  to 
meet  them.  The  contest  was  obstinate;  the  Persian  officers 
urged  on  their  men  with  blows ;  the  Greeks  fought  with  des- 
peration. Numbers  of  the  Barbarians  fell,  among  whom 
were  two  uncles  and  two  brotners  of  the  king.  Most  of  the 
Greeks  had  now  broken  their  spears,  and  fought  with  their 
swords.  Leonidas  fell,  and  a  severe  conflict  arose  over  his 
body,  which  the  Greeks  finally  carried  off.  When  news  came 
of  the  descent  of  the  Persians  behind  them,  they  retired  into 
the  narrow  pass,  and  taking  their  station  on  a  little  knoll, 
the  Spartans  and  Thespians  fought  till  all  were  slain.  The 
Thebans,  as  soon  as  they  had  opportunity,  advanced  with 
outstretched  hands  suing  for  mercy ;  and  as  the  Thessalians 
testified  for  their  medism,  they  were  spared. 

The  head  of  Leonidas  was  cut  off,  and  his  body  hung  on 
a  cross,  by  the  impotent  vengeance  of  the  Persian  monarch. 
But  when  the  Barbarians  were  expelled  from  Greece,  the 
Amphictyons  placed  on  the  knoll  a  marble  lion  in  memory  of 
Leonidas,  and  erected  pillars  with  inscriptions  over  the  graves 
of  the  fallen  patriots.  A  price  was  set  on  the  head  of  the 
traitor  Ephialtes,  and  some  years  afterwards  he  was  slain  by 
a  Trachinian,  and  though  it  was  on  another  account,  the 
Lacedaemonians  rewarded  his  slayer. 

10*  o 


114  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Another  but  a  much  less  probable  account  of  this  battle 
says,  that  Leonidas  led  forth  his  men  while  it  was  yet  night, 
assailed  the  Persian  camp,  penetrated  even  to  the  royal  tent, 
and  slew  all  who  were  in  it.  Xerxes,  fortunately  for  himself, 
had  gone  out  when  he  heard  the  tumult,  or  the  war  might 
have  been  ended  that  night.* 

It  is  said  that  but  one  of  the  three  hundred  Spartans  re- 
turned home.  There  were  two,  Eurytus  and  Aristodemus, 
at  Alpenus  on  account  of  sore  eyes.  Eurytus,  on  hearing 
of  the  passage  of  the  Persians,  called  for  his  arms  and  made 
his  Helot  lead  him  to  where  they  were  fighting,  and  there 
leave  him,  and  he  fell  with  the  rest.  As  Aristodemus  had 
not  done  the  same,  he  was  made  atimous  on  his  return  :  no 
one  would  speak  to  him  or  give  him  fire,  and  he  was  called 
the  Coward.  But  he  afterwards  nobly  retrieved  his  char- 
acter.! 

One  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  Spartans  who  fell  in 
this  conflict  was  Dieneces,  many  of  whose  acute  sayings 
were  recollected :  the  following  is  the  only  one  transmitted 
to  us.  A  Trachinian  telling  the  Spartans,  who  had  not  yet 
seen  the  Medes,  that  their  number  was  so  great  that  the  sun 
would  be  hidden  by  the  multitude  of  their  arrows,  "  'Tis 
good,"  said  Dieneces,  "  what  the  Trachinian  stranger  says ; 
for  if  the  Medes  hide  the  sun,  we  shall  fight  in  the  shade,  and 
not  in  the  sun." 

While  the  pass  of  Thermopylae  was  thus  contested  by  the 
land-forces,  the  fleets  were  not  inactive.  The  Greeks  at  the 
Artemision,  when  they  saw  the  great  number  of  the  Persian 
fleet,  were  for  dispersing,  and  not  venturing  to  engage  it. 
The  Eubceans  besought  Eurybiades  the  Spartan,  who  held 
the  chief  command,  to  remain  till  they  had  removed  their 
children  and  slaves  over  to  the  main  land,  but  in  vain.  They 
then  came  to  Themistocles,  and  gave  him  thirty  talents  to 

*  Diodorus,  Plutarch,  Justin. 

t  Another  account  said  that  he  and  another  had  been  sent  on  some 
business  out  of  the  camp,  and  that  his  comrade  returned,  while  he  would 
not. 


BATTLE    OF    THE    ARTEMISION.  115 

induce  him  to  cause  the  fleet  to  stay  and  engage  the  enemy 
there.  The  Athenians  sent  Eurybiades  five  of  these  talents 
as  from  himself,  and  with  three  he  gained  Adeimantus  the 
Corinthian,  the  most  strenuous  advocate  of  retreat ;  the  re- 
mainder he  kept  for  himself.  It  was  resolved,  therefore,  to 
remain  and  fight. 

The  Persians,  aware  of  the  small  number  of  the  Greek 
ships,  were  only  afraid  lest  they  should  take  to  flight.  They 
therefore  despatched  two  hundred  ships  to  sail  round  Eu- 
bcea,  and  occupy  the  Euripus  behind  them,  and  in  the  mean 
time  they  prepared  for  action.  A  celebrated  diver  named 
Scyllias,  who  was  with  the  Persians,  came  over  to  the  Greeks 
with  the  intelligence,  and  it  was  resolved  to  attack  the  two 
hundred  ships  first.  As  these,  however,  did  not  appear,  they 
sailed  boldly  to  Aphetae  in  order  of  battle.  The  Barbarians 
advanced  to  engage  them,  and  the  combat  lasted  the  entire 
day :  the  Greeks  took  thirty  ships,  and  one  Lemnian  vessel 
came  over  to  them. 

During  the  night  there  came  on  a  tremendous  storm  of 
thunder,  lightning,  wind,  and  rain,  which  did  great  damage 
to  the  Persian  fleet.  The  two  hundred  ships  which  were  at 
sea  suffered  still  more,  and  most  of  them  were  wrecked  off 
the  coast  of  Eubcea.  "  The  whole  was  done  by  the  Deity," 
observes  Herodotus,  "  that  the  Persian  power  might  be  made 
equal  to  that  of  the  Greeks." 

Next  day  the  Greeks  were  joined  by  fifty-three  Athenian 
ships.  The  following  day  the  Persian  fleet  sailed  to  the  Ar- 
temision  in  the  form  of  a  half-moon,  and  enclosed  the  Greeks. 
The  combat  lasted  the  entire  day,  with  great  loss  of  men 
and  ships  on  both  sides,  nearly  one  half  of  the  Athenian  tri- 
remes being  disabled.  They  now  consulted  about  retiring ; 
and  when  their  sentinel  came  from  Trachis,  and  told  how 
Leonidas  and  his  men  had  just  fallen,  an  immediate  retreat 
was  resolved  on.  The  Corinthians  led  the  way,  tiie  Atheni- 
ans brought  up  the  rear.  Themistocles,  taking  some  of  the 
best  sailing  ships,  went,  ere  he  departed,  to  the  various  water- 
ing-places on  the  Artemision,  and  cut  on  the  rocks  an  ad- 


116  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

dress  to  the  Ionians,  reminding  them  of  their  injustice  in  aid- 
ing to  enslave  their  fathers,  and  calling  upon  them  to  desert 
if  possible,  if  not  to  keep  back,  in  the  engagement.  This  he 
did  in  expectation  that,  if  they  did  not  come  over,  it  would 
make  them  suspected  by  Xerxes. 

The  pass  being  now  free,  the  Persian  host,  led  by  the 
Thessalians,  advanced  into  Locris  and  Doris,  and  thence  to 
Phocis,  where,  following  the  course  of  the  Cephissus,  they 
burned  all  the  towns,  the  Phocians  having  fled  to  the  tops 
of  Parnassus,  or  to  Amphissa  in  the  country  of  the  Ozolian 
Locrians.  At  Panopeus,  Xerxes  divided  his  army,  himself 
leading  the  main  body  into  Bceotia,  and  sending  off  a  large 
detachment  to  seize  and  plunder  the  temple  at  Delphi.  The 
tidings  of  the  approach  of  the  Barbarians  threw  the  Delphi- 
ans  into  consternation,  and  they  inquired  of  the  god  wheth- 
er they  should  bury  the  sacred  treasures,  or  convey  them  to 
another  country.  The  reply  was,  that  he  was  able  to  take 
care  of  his  own.  They  therefore  sent  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren over  to  Achaia,  and  took  refuge  themselves  in  the  large 
Corycian  cave  on  Parnassus  and  elsewhere,  leaving  only  six- 
ty men  and  the  prophet  in  the  town. 

The  Barbarians  were  now  within  sight  of  the  temple, 
when  the  prophet,  to  his  amazement,  looked  and  beheld  the 
sacred  arms  which  hung  in  the  sanctuary,  and  which  no  man 
might  touch,  lying  on  the  ground  out  before  the  fane.  The 
Persian  troops  had  reached  the  temple  of  Athena  Proneia, 
(Before-the-tcmple,)  when  suddenly  there  burst  from  heaven 
a  storm  of  thunder,  lightning,  and  rain  ;  huge  masses  of 
rock  rolled  down  on  them  from  Parnassus,  and  from  the  fane 
of  Athena  issued  cries  of  onset  and  conflict.  Some  were 
crushed  to  death ;  the  rest  fled  in  dismay,  pursued  by  the  Del- 
phians;  and  when  they  reached  the  camp,  they  told  that  two 
warriors  of  superhuman  size  had  aided  in  the  pursuit  and 
slaughter.  In  these  warriors  the  Delphians  recognized  their 
domestic  heroes,  Phylacus  and  Autonoiis,  whose  chapels  were 
in  that  neighborhood. 


BURNING    OP   ATHENS.  117 


CHAPTER  XII.* 

BURNING  OP  ATHENS. BATTLE  OF  SALAMIS. FLIGHT  OP 

XERXES.  BATTLE  OF  PLAT./EA. BATTLE  OF  MYCALE. 

Xerxes,  meantime,  led  his  army  through  Bceotia,  all  of 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  had  medised,  except  Thespise  and 
Plataea;  which  towns,  being  deserted  by  their  inhabitants,  he 
burned.  He  then  entered  Attica,  just  three  months  having 
elapsed  since  he  left  the  Hellespont.  On  coming  to  Athens, 
he  found  the  city  deserted,  except  by  a  few  persons  who  had 
remained  on  the  Acropolis,  which  they  had  barricadoed  with 
timber :  either  believing  this  to  be  the  sense  of  the  oracle, 
or  prevented  by  poverty  from  departing  with  the  other  citi- 
zens. 

For  Themistocles,  by  appealing  to  the  superstition  as  well 
as  the  reason  of  the  Athenians,  had  induced  them  to  leave 
their  city  to  its  fate.  The  sacred  serpent,  it  was  given  out, 
had  vanished  from  the  Acropolis  —  a  sign,  he  said,  that  the 
goddess  herself  had  abandoned  it.  A  decree  therefore  was 
passed  at  his  suggestion,  that  the  city  should  be  commended 
to  the  care  of  its  patron-goddess,  that  the  men  should  all  get 
on  board  the  ships,  and  each  provide  for  the  security  of  his 
wife,  children,  and  slaves  as  best  he  could.  Cimon,  the  son 
of  Miltiades,  set  the  first  example  ;  followed  by  a  number  of 
young  men  of  his  own  age  and  rank,  and  carrying  his  bridle 
in  his  hand,  he  ascended  the  Acropolis,  and  hanging  up  the 
bridle  as  now  useless,  and  taking  down  one  of  the  shields 
which  were  suspended  at  the  temple,  and  making  his  prayer 
to  the  goddess,  he  went  down  to  the  sea-side  and  embark- 
ed, f  The  greater  part  sought  refuge  in  the  Isle  of  Sal  amis, 
the  retreat  of  the  Athenians  at  all  periods  of  their  history ; 
others  conveyed  their  families  to  iEgina  and  to  Trcezen,  on 

*  Herod,  viii.  40  to  the  end,  and  ix.    Diodorus  xi.     Plut.  Themist. 
and  Aristeides. 
t  Plut.  Cimon,  5. 


118  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  opposite  coast,  and  nothing,  it  is  said,  could  surpass  the 
generosity  with  which  the  Trcezenians  acted  toward  them  ; 
they  allowed  two  oboles  a  day  each  for  their  support,  permit- 
ted the  children  to  pull  the  fruit  where  they  pleased,  and 
paid  schoolmasters  to  teach  them.* 

The  Acropolis  of  Athens  is  a  rock  rising  perpendicularly 
out  of  the  plain  to  a  height  of  two  hundred  and  forty  feet ; 
its  summit  is  accessible  in  only  one  place  ;  a  small  number 
therefore  could  easily  defend  it.  The  Persians  took  their 
station  on  the  Areiopagus,  [Ares'  Hill,)  opposite  the  ascent, 
and  thence  discharged  arrows,  bearing  lighted  tow,  against 
tho  wooden  defences,  which  they  thus  burned.  The  Peisis- 
tratids  then  vainly  sought  to  induce  the  defenders  to  sur- 
render; when  the  Barbarians  attempted  to  climb  the  ascent, 
they  rolled  down  ponderous  stones  to  crush  them.  At  length, 
some  of  the  Persians  discovered  an  unguarded  place  by  the 
temple  of  Aglauros,  where  with  some  difficulty  they  ascend- 
ed, and  then  rushed  to  the  gates  and  opened  them.  Some 
of  the  Athenians  flung  themselves  down  from  the  wall  and 
perished ;  others  fled  to  the  temple,  whither  they  were  pur- 
sued and  slaughtered  by  the  Barbarians.  The  temple  was 
plundered,  and  all  the  buildings  on  the  Acropolis  burnt. 
The  same  was  the  fate  of  the  town,  with  the  exception  of 
such  houses  as  the  Persian  officers  reserved  for  their  own 
quarters. 

The  destruction  of  Athens  was  viewed  by  the  assembled 
fleet  of  Greece,  which  was  now  lying  at  the  Isle  of  Salamis. 
For  when  they  retired  from  the  Artemision,  they  came  hither 
at  the  request  of  the  Athenians ;  who,  finding  that  the  Pel- 
oponnesians  had  not,  as  they  expected,  marched  with  all 
their  forces  into  Boeotia  to  meet  the  invaders,  but,  thinking 
only  of  themselves,  were  securing  the  Isthmus,  had  besought 
them  to  remain  at  Salamis  till  they  should  have  removed 
their  families,  and  also  to  take  counsel  as  to  what  future 
measures  should  be  adopted.     When  the  Athenian  women 

*  Plut.  Themist.  10.    Herodotus  says  nothing  of  it. 


BATTLE    OF    SALAMIS.  119 

and  children  had  been  placed  in  safety,  a  council  was  held 
to  determine  in  what  place  they  should  stay  and  fight.  The 
Peloponnesians  were  for  drawing  up  the  fleet  before  the 
Isthmus,  as  in  that  case,  if  defeated,  they  had  the  land  to 
escape  to;  whereas,  if  defeated  at  Salamis,  there  was  no 
retreat,  and  they  should  be  slaughtered  in  the  island.  They 
had  not  come  to  a  decision,  when  they  learned  that  the 
Acropolis  of  Athens  had  been  taken  by  the  Barbarians. 
Some,  in  their  terror,  got  on  board  their  ships  to  fly  instantly, 
and  the  rest  determined  to  retreat  to  the  Isthmus.  Night 
came  on,  and  all  embarked  to  sail  from  Salamis  in  the 
morning. 

When  Themistocles  returned  to  his  ship,  one  of  his  friends, 
named  Mnesiphilus,  came  and  asked  him  what  had  been  re- 
solved on  :  he  told  him.  "  Then,"  replied  he,  "  all  is  lost, 
for  they  will  disperse,  and  Eurybiades  will  be  unable  to  retain 
them.  Go,  and,  if  you  can,  make  him  stay,  and  fight  here." 
Without  reply,  Themistocles  hastened  to  Eurybiades,  and 
saying  he  had  something  to  communicate  to  him,  was  de- 
sired to  come  on  board  his  ship.  He  then  spoke  with  such 
effect,  that  the  Spartan  agreed  to  summon  a  council  to  re- 
consider the  matter.  When  the  generals  met,  Themistocles, 
without  waiting  for  Eurybiades  to  propose  the  subject  of 
deliberation,  according  to  usage,  was  employing  his  eloquence 
to  gain  the  members  to  his  opinion.  "  Themistocles,"  said 
Adeimantus  the  Corinthian,  "those  who  rise  before  their 
time  in  the  games  are  flogged."  —  "Yes," -said  he,  "but 
those  who  loiter  are  not  crowned."  Then  turning  to  Eu- 
rybiades, he  showed  him  that  if  they  retired  to  the  Isthmus 
they  would  lose  Megara,  Salamis,  and  ^Egina,  and  bring  the 
Persians  on  the  Peloponnesus;  that,  moreover,  they  would 
then  have  to  fight  in  the  open  sea  instead  of  in  a  narrow  strait, 
where  their  ships,  which  were  heavier  and  fewer  in  number, 
would  be  less  able  to  contend  with  those  of  the  Barbarians ; 
that  further,  Salamis,  in  which  there  were  so  many  Athenian 
families,  ought  to  be  protected.  When  he  had  spoken, 
Adeimantus  called  on  Eurybiades  not  to  listen  to  a  man  who 


120  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

had  no  country.  Themistocles,  kindling  in  anger,  told  him 
that  those  who  had  manned  two  hundred  triremes  had  more 
land  and  country  than  the  Corinthians,  for  that  no  people  in 
Greece  could  resist  their  attack.  He  then  turned  to  Eurybi- 
ades  and  said,  that  if  he  did  not  stay  and  fight  where  he  was, 
the  Athenians  would  take  their  families  on  board  and  sail 
away  and  settle  at  Siris  in  Italy,  leaving  them  to  their  fate. 
This  menace  was  conclusive,  and  it  was  resolved  to  fight  at 
Sal  am  is. 

At  sunrise  an  earthquake  shook  the  sea  and  land.  It  was 
resolved  to  seek  by  prayer  the  aid  of  the  gods  and  of  the 
heroes :  the  iEacids,  Telamon  and  Ajax,  the  tutelar  heroes 
of  Salamis,  were  immediately  invoked,  and  a  vessel  was  sent 
to  ^Egina  to  call  on  the  rest  of  this  heroic  family.  It  was 
afterwards  told  that  the  deities  of  Eleusis,  Demeter  and  the 
Kora,  had  announced  defeat  to  the  Barbarians ;  for  as  the 
Persians  were  wasting  Attica,  an  Athenian  exile  and  the 
Spartan  Demaratus  being  in  the  Thriasian  plain,  saw  a  dust 
as  if  raised  by  three  myriads  of  men  coming  from  Eleusis, 
and  heard  a  cry  proceeding  from  it,  which  the  Athenian  knew 
to  be  the  mystic  Iacchus.  He  told  his  ignorant  companion, 
that  if  the  dust  moved  toward  Peloponnesus,  it  was  to  an- 
nounce ruin  to  the  king  and  the  land  army ;  if  toward  Sala- 
mis, to  the  fleet.  They  gazed,  and  the  cloud  of  dust  rising 
high  in  the  air,  sailed  on  to  Salamis  and  the  camp  of  the 
Greeks.  They  saw  that  destruction  menaced  the  invaders, 
but  they  held  their  peace,  fearing  the  wrath  of  the  king. 

The  Persian  fleet,  having  sailed  down  through  the  Euripus, 
had  now  reached  the  Athenian  harbor  of  Fhaleron  undimin- 
ished, we  are  assured,  *  in  number,  for  its  losses  had  been 
made  up  by  the  accession  of  the  ships  of  the  islanders:  it 
therefore  counted  1200  ships  of  war.  The  Grecian  fleet  lay 
at  Salamis :  it  contained  16  Lacedaemonian  triremes,  40 
Corinthian,  15  Sicyonian,  10  Epidaurian,  5  Trcezenian,  3 
Ilermionian,  180  Athenian,  20  Megarian.     iEgina  furnished 

*  Herod,  viii.  C6  ;  but  what  addition  of  force  could  the  Cyclads  give  ? 


BATTLE    OF    SALAMIS.  121 

30,  Chalcis  20,  Eretria  7,  Ceos  7,  Naxos  4,  Styrea  2,  Cyth- 
nus  1.  Croton  in  Italy  sent  one  trireme  —  the  only  aid 
Greece  received  in  her  glorious  struggle !  The  whole  fleet, 
exclusive  of  a  few  fifty-oared  vessels,  amounted  to  378  ships, 
exceeding  that  at  the  Artemision  by  107. 

Xerxes  forthwith  issued  his  orders  for  the  commanders  of 
his  navy  to  meet  in  council ;  and  when  they  were  assembled, 
Mardonius  went  round  taking  their  opinions  as  to  whether 
they  should  fight  or  not.  All  but  Artemisia  voted  for  im- 
mediate action.  This  wise  and  heroic  princess  reminded 
Mardonius  how  much  superior  the  Greeks  were  to  the  Asiatics 
in  valor.  She  asked  why  run  the  risk  of  defeat,  showed  how 
want  of  provisions  would  soon  compel  the  Greeks  to  quit 
Salamis  and  disperse,  and  advised,  as  the  better  course,  to 
lead  the  land  army  into  Peloponnesus.  All  her  friends 
trembled  for  the  heroine  who  had  spoken  thus  freely ;  but 
Xerxes,  when  informed,  highly  applauded  her,  though  he  re- 
solved to  follow  the  opinion  of  the  majority.  The  fleet  made 
sail  for  Salamis  in  order  of  battle ;  but  night  came  on  and 
prevented  an  engagement. 

Meantime  a  portion  of  the  land  forces  were  advancing 
toward  the  Isthmus,  where  a  large  army  of  Peloponnesians, 
under  Cleombrotus,  the  Spartan  king,  was  assembled.  They 
had  blocked  up  with  rocks  the  narrow  Scironian  Way  which 
overhangs  the  sea,  and  built  a  wall  from  sea  to  sea  across 
the  Isthmus.  The  Peloponnesians  at  Salamis,  on  hearing 
of  this  movement  of  the  Persians,  again  lost  courage,  and 
seemed  determined  to  return  to  the  defence  of  their  homes, 
and  Themistocles  saw  that  if  any  more  time  was  allowed 
them,  all  would  be  lost.  He  therefore,  during  the  night,  sent 
a  trusty  servant,  named  Sicinnus,  the  tutor  of  his  children, 
in  a  boat  to  the  Persian  camp,  desiring  him  to  say  that  the 
Athenian  commander,  who  was  their  secret  friend,  had  sent 
him  to  inform  them  that  the  Greeks  were  at  disunion  and 
meditated  flight,  and  that  if  they  attacked  them  at  once,  they 
would  obtain  an  easy  victory.  The  Persians  fell  readily  into 
the  snare,  and  that  very  night  preparations  were  made  for  the 
11  p 


122  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

attack.  The  Egyptian  ships  were  sent  round  Salamis  to 
occupy  the  strait  behind  the  Greeks,  and  a  body  of  men 
were  landed  in  the  little  islet  of  Psyttaleia,  which  lies  before 
the  strait,  and  to  which  it  was  supposed  the  wrecks  would 
be  carried  and  the  men  would  come  for  refuge. 

The  Greeks,  ignorant  of  all  this,  were  still  in  debate,  when 
Aristeides,  having  seen  the  motions  of  the  Persian  fleet,  came 
in  a  boat  from  iEgina,  and  calling  out  Themistocles,  informed 
him  how  things  were,  and  represented  that  retreat  was  now 
impossible.  Themistocles  then  told  him  in  confidence  that 
it  was  all  his  own  doing,  and  requested  him  to  enter  and 
inform  the  chiefs,  as  they  would  probably  give  credit  to  him. 
Aristeides  did  as  he  wished,  but  still  several  refused  to  believe 
it.  But  presently  came  a  Tenian  trireme,  which  had  de- 
serted, with  the  same  intelligence,  and  the  truth  of  it  was 
no  longer  to  be  disputed.  Day  was  now  dawning ;  the  war- 
riors all  assembled,  Themistocles  addressed  them  in  enliven- 
ing terms,  they  got  on  board ;  the  trireme  sent  to  iEgina  to 
invite  the  ^Eacids  returned  at  that  moment  and  took  her 
station  with  the  rest. 

The  Persian  monarch  seated  himself  on  his  throne  on  the 
summit  of  the  hill  ^Egaleos,  opposite  Salamis,  to  view  this 
important  conflict :  secretaries  stood  around  him  to  note 
each  event  of  the  engagement.  His  fleet  advanced  in  line 
of  battle  ;  the  Phoenicians  forming  the  right,  the  Ionians  the 
left :  the  Athenians  were  opposed  to  the  former,  the  Lace- 
daemonians to  the  latter.  For  some  time  the  Grecian  mari- 
ners lay  on  their  oars  hesitating  to  begin.  At  length  an 
Athenian  trireme  rushed  forth  and  struck  one  of  those  of 
the  enemy  :  others  then  came  to  its  aid,  and  the  fight  soon 
became  general  along  the  line.  So  said  the  Athenians  :  the 
^Eginetes  asserted  that  it  was  their  trireme  which  had  been 
sent  to  call  the  yEacids  that  began  the  fight.  It  was  also 
said  that  a  female  phantom  appeared,  and  cried  so  as  to  be 
heard  over  the  whole  fleet,  •'  Dastards !  how  long  will  you 
lie  on  your  oars  ?  " 

When  the  Persians  came  within  the  strait,  owing  to  their 


FLIGHT    OF    XERXES.  123 

numbers  they  were  unable  to  keep  their  order,  while  the 
Greeks  had  sufficient  room.  They  therefore  soon  fell  into 
confusion,  and  though  the  crews  individually  fought  with 
the  utmost  heroism,  several  ships  were  soon  taken,  and  still 
more  disabled.  Artemisia  being  closely  pursued  by  an 
Athenian  trireme,  and  seeing  no  chance  of  escape,  ran  at  a 
Calyndian  vessel  and  sank  it ;  and  the  Athenian  trierarch, 
judging  from  this  that  she  must  be  a  friend  to  Greece,  gave 
over  the  chase.  Xerxes,  seeing  the  deed,  and  thinking  it 
was  one  of  the  enemy's  ships  she  had  sunk,  observed,  "  The 
men  are  women,  the  women  men ! "  Every  moment  now 
augmented  the  confusion  and  the  loss  in  the  Persian  fleet, 
and  it  soon  was  seen  in  flight  for  Phaleron.  While  the 
Athenian  triremes  moved  about,  every  where  carrying  destruc- 
tion to  the  enemy,  the  ^Eginetes  got  out  to  sea,  and  fell  on 
and  destroyed  those  who  were  flying  from  the  Athenians. 
Meantime,  Aristeides,  having  collected  a  good  body  of  hoplites 
who  were  on  the  shore  of  Salamis,  passed  over  with  them  to 
Psyttaleia  and  slaughtered  all  the  Barbarians  who  were  in  it. 
Evening  terminated  the  conflict.  The  Greeks  lost  forty 
triremes;  the  Barbarians  two  hundred,  exclusive  of  those 
which  were  taken.  Among  the  slain  were  Ariabignes  the 
admiral,  Xerxes'  brother,  and  several  Medes  and  Persians  of 
high  rank. 

The  Greeks  returned  to  Salamis  and  collected  the  wrecks, 
and  got  their  vessels  in  order,  expecting  another  attack  in 
the  morning.  But  Xerxes  now,  either  in  earnest  or  to  con- 
ceal his  intentions  of  retreat,  began  to  make  preparations 
for  constructing  abridge  over  to  the  island,  in  order  to  bring 
his  land  troops  against  them.  Whilst  he  was  thus  engaged, 
Mardonius  came  to  him,  and  advised  either  an  immediate 
invasion  of  Peloponnesus,  or  that  the  king  should  return 
home,  leaving  with  him  three  hundred  thousand  picked 
troops,  with  which  he  pledged  himself  to  reduce  Greece  be- 
neath his  yoke.  This  last  proposal  was  well  pleasing  to  the 
king,  now  weary  of  war :  Artemisia,  on  being  consulted,  ap- 
proved of  it,  and  a  secret  message  from  Themistocles  finally 


124  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

decided  him  to  lose  no  time  in  getting  over  to  Asia.  For 
Themistocles,  after  the  victory,  proposed  that  the  fleet  should 
sail  to  the  Hellespont  and  destroy  the  bridge,  so  as  to  cut 
off  the  retreat  of  the  king.  But  Eurybiades  representing  the 
danger  and  the  impolicy  of  such  a  course,  it  was  given  up ; 
and  Themistocles,  then  prudently  resolving  to  make  a  merit 
of  what  he  could  not  prevent,  sent  Sicinnus  again  secretly  to 
Xerxes  to  tell  him  that  the  Greeks  had  proposed  to  destroy 
the  bridge,  but  that  he,  as  a  friend  to  the  king,  had  diverted 
them  from  it. 

When  Xerxes  had  determined  on  retreat,  he  sent  his  fleet 
in  all  haste  to  the  Hellespont  to  guard  the  bridge.  The 
Greeks  pursued  them  as  far  as  Andros,  and  it  was  here  that 
Themistocles  made  the  proposal  just  mentioned.  That  pro- 
ject being  rejected,  it  was  resolved  to  punish  the  islands  for 
their  medism.  Themistocles  told  the  Andrians  that  the 
Athenians  came,  having  with  them  two  great  deities,  Per- 
suasion and  Necessity,  and  that  they  must  therefore  give 
them  money.  The  Andrians  replied,  that  there  were  two 
worthless  deities,  Poverty  and  Inability,  who  never  would 
leave  their  island,  and  who  prevented  them  from  giving  any. 
The  Greeks  therefore  besieged  their  town.  The  people  of 
Paros,  Carystus,  and  some  other  places,  hearing  of  this,  sent 
money  secretly  to  Themistocles,  and  thus  escaped ;  and  the 
Greeks,  having  spent  some  time  to  no  purpose  before  Andros, 
returned  to  Salamis,  laying  waste  the  lands  of  Carystus  on 
their  way. 

Having  divided  the  booty,  the  Greeks  repaired  to  the 
Isthmus,  to  decide  on  whom  the  prize  of  valor  and  conduct 
should  be  bestowed.  The  /Eginetes  were  pronounced  to 
have  merited  more  than  any  other  people,  Themistocles 
more  than  any  other  commander.  For  each  chief  being 
desired  to  go  to  the  altar  of  Poseidon,  and  declare  who  was 
first  and  who  second  in  merit,  each  gave  the  first  place  to 
himself,  the  second  to  Themistocles,  who  was  evidently 
therefore  entitled  to  the  first,  though  envy  withheld  it. 
When  he  went  to  Sparta  shortly  afterwards,  he  was  present- 


FLIGHT    OF    XERXES.  125 

ed  with  an  olive-crown  for  wisdom,  one  for  valor  being 
given  to  Eurybiades :  he  was  also  presented  with  the  hand- 
somest chariot  there  :  and  when  he  was  departing,  three  hun- 
dred Spartans  of  rank  attended  him  to  the  frontiers,  —  hon- 
ors never  before  bestowed  on  any  one. 

Meanwhile,  the  Persian  host  was  in  full  retreat.  In 
Thessaly  the  king  parted  with  Mardonius,  who  selected  the 
Immortals,  the  Persians,  Medes,  Sacians,  Bactrians,  and  In 
dians,  and  such  portions  as  he  deemed  best  of  the  other 
troops,  in  all  three  hundred  thousand  horse  and  foot,  re- 
solving to  winter  there  and  renew  the  war  in  spring.  Xerxes 
came  in  forty-five  days  to  the  Hellespont,  and  found  the 
bridge  broken  up  by  the  winds  and  the  current.  He  had 
scarcely  any  troops  with  him ;  famine  and  the  dysentery 
made  terrific  ravages  among  those  who  followed  after  him ; 
they  were  reduced  to  feed  on  grass  and  the  leaves  of  trees, 
and  the  carcasses  of  myriads  mouldered  on  the  plains  of  Ma- 
cedonia and  Thrace.  Xerxes  led  the  feeble  remnant  of  his 
host  to  Sardes,  and  thence  returned  to  Persia.  The  fleet, 
after  it  had  carried  the  king  and  his  troops  over  to  Asia, 
wintered  at  Cyme,  and  in  the  spring  sailed  to  Samos  to  keep 
Ionia  from  revolt. 

In  the  spring,  (Ol.  75,  2,)  the  Grecian  fleet,  commanded 
by  Leotychides  the  Spartan,  the  Athenians  being  led  by 
Xanthippus  the  son  of  Ariphron,  assembled  to  the  number 
of  one  hundred  and  ten  ships  at  JEgina.  Here  they  were 
visited  by  envoys  from  Ionia,  praying  them  to  come  and 
deliver  that  country.  They  sailed  as  far  as  Delos,  but 
feared  to  go  any  further  ;  and,  the  Persians  in  like  manner 
not  venturing  to  leave  Samos,  both  remained  inactive. 

Mardonius,  ere  he  opened  the  campaign,  resolved  to  try 
to  gain  over  the  Athenians,  who  were  now  returned  to 
their  city.  For  this  purpose,  he  sent  to  them  their  guest- 
friend  Alexander  the  Macedonian,  offering,  in  the  name  of 
the  king,  to  secure  them  in  their  independence,  and  in  their 
territory,  to  give  them  any  other  territory  they  chose,  and 
to  rebuild  the  temples  which  had  been  burnt.  Alexander, 
11* 


126  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

as  their  friend,  urged  them  to  accept  these  terms.  On  the 
other  side,  the  envoys  who  had  hastened  from  Sparta  be- 
sought them  not  to  abandon  the  common  cause,  offering  to 
maintain  their  families  and  do  all  in  their  power  to  aid  them. 
To  Alexander  the  Athenians  replied,  that  while  the  sun  pur- 
sued his  course,  they  never  would  be  the  friends  of  him  who 
had  burnt  their  houses  and  temples.  To  the  Spartans  they 
said,  that  nothing  but  ignorance  of  the  Athenian  character 
(which,  however,  they  excused)  could  have  made  them  sup- 
pose that  they  would  abandon  the  cause  of  Greece.  They 
gratefully  declined  their  offer  of  supporting  their  families, 
but  requested  of  them  to  send,  without  loss  of  time,  an  army 
to  their  aid,  as  the  Barbarian  host  would  soon  be  in  motion. 

Mardonius  now  entered  Bceotia,  and  came  to  Thebes, 
where  the  oligarchs  advised  him  to  stay  and  fight,  as  the 
country  was  suited  to  cavalry ;  but  he  would  return  to  At- 
tica, and  in  the  tenth  month  after  Xerxes  had  taken  Athens, 
he  entered  it  anew,  but  found  it  deserted,  the  people  hav- 
ing as  usual  passed  over  to  Salamis.  Again  he  tried  nego- 
tiation, sending  a  Hellespontine  Greek,  named  Murychides, 
to  offer  the  terms  he  had  offered  before.  Lycidas,  one  of 
the  senate,  proposed  to  treat,  but  senators  and  people  stoned 
him  to  death,  and  the  women  inflicted  the  same  penalty  on 
his  wife  and  children :  the  envoy  was  dismissed  uninjured. 
Mardonius  now  wasted  the  country  which  he  hitherto  had 
spared,  and  he  burned  the  remaining  houses  and  temples. 

The  Athenians,  when  they  heard  of  the  approach  of  Mar- 
donius, had  sent  envoys  to  upbraid  the  Spartans  with  not 
having  come  to  the  defence  of  Attica,  and  to  menace  them 
with  defection  if  they  still  neglected  them.  The  Spartans, 
who  were  then  keeping  their  festival  of  the  Hyacinthia,  put 
them  off  from  day  to  day  for  a  space  of  ten  days,  during 
which  time  the  wall  at  the  Isthmus  was  nearly  completed ; 
but  Chileos,  the  Tegeate,  reminding  the  Ephors  that  if  the 
Athenians  joined  the  Barbarians,  the  wall  would  be  of  no 
use,  they  saw  that  their  policy  was  foolish  as  well  as  bas?, 
and  resolved  to  change  it.    That  very  night  they  sent  off  five 


BATTLE    OF    PLAT.2EA.  127 

thousand  Spartans,  each  attended  by  seven  Helots,  under 
Pausanias,  the  cousin  and  guardian  of  the  young  king  Pleis- 
tarchos.  In  the  morning,  the  Athenian  envoys  came  and  in- 
formed the  Ephors  that,  if  not  aided  at  once,  they  would 
depart,  and  the  Athenians  would  join  the  king.  The  Ephors 
assured  them,  on  oath,  that  an  army  was  on  its  march,  and 
must  have  already  reached  Arcadia.  The  envoys  could 
scarce  believe  them ;  but  when  they  had  ascertained  the 
truth,  they  joyfully  departed,  accompanied  by  an  additional 
force  of  five  thousand  Lacedaemonian  Pericecians. 

The  Argives,  who  had  promised  Mardonius  to  prevent  the 
march  of  the  Spartans,  now  sent  a  swift  courier  to  inform 
him  that  they  had  been  unable  to  stop  them.  As  Attica 
was  not  adapted  for  cavalry,  he  resolved  to  return  to  Bceotia. 
He  led  his  army  into  Megaris,  which,  as  it  was  reported,  a 
Lacedaemonian  army  had  entered ;  but  rinding  the  rumor 
false,  he  returned  to  Attica,  where  he  was  met  by  some  of 
the  people  who  dwelt  on  the  Asopus,  sent  by  the  Boeotarchs 
to  conduct  him.  They  led  him  by  Deceleia  and  Sphendales 
to  Tanagra;  and  having  passed  the  night  there,  he  came 
next  day  to  Scotos  in  the  Theban  territory.  He  extended 
his  camp  from  near  Erythree  to  the  River  Asopus,  and  raised  a 
rampart  of  timber  for  its  defence. 

The  Lacedaemonians  were  joined  at  the  Isthmus  by  the 
other  well-affected  Peloponnesians ;  and  the  sacrifices  pro- 
ving favorable,  they  crossed  it  and  advanced  to  Eleusis, 
where  they  were  joined  by  the  Athenians  from  Salamis. 
The  sacrifices  proving  again  favorable,  they  entered  the 
passes  of  Cithaeron,  and  came  to  Erythrae,  where  finding  the 
Barbarians  encamped  on  the  Asopus,  they  took  up  their 
position  at  the  foot  of  Cithaeron. 

Mardonius,  finding  that  they  would  not  come  down  into 
the  plain,  sent  his  cavalry,  under  the  command  of  Masistius, 
to  attack  them.  The  most  assailable  position  was  occupied 
by  the  Megarians ;  and  the  Barbarians,  attacking  them  in 
squadrons,  reduced  them  to  extremity.  They  sent  to  tell 
the  generals  that  unless  aided  they  must  give  way.     None, 


128  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

however,  would  stir  from  their  place  except  the  Athenians, 
three  hundred  picked  men  of  whom,  with  some  archers,  went 
to  their  relief.  In  one  of  the  charges,  the  horse  of  Masis- 
tius  was  wounded  by  an  arrow,  and  he  reared  and  threw 
his  master.  The  Athenians  rushed  on  to  slay  him,  but  his 
gold  scale-corselet  resisted  all  their  efforts,  till  some  one 
pierced  his  eye,  and  thus  killed  him.  The  whole  Persian 
horse  made  a  charge  to  recover  his  body  ;  the  other  Greeks 
came  to  the  aid  of  the  Athenians,  and  at  length  the  Barba- 
rians were  driven  off,  leaving  the  corpse  of  the  fallen  chief 
in  the  hands  of  the  Greeks;  who,  placing  it  on  a  cart, 
carried  and  exposed  it  along  their  whole  line.  The  Per- 
sians, as  he  was  a  man  of  high  rank,  made  a  great  lamen- 
tation for  him,  cutting  off,  according  to  their  usage,  their 
own  hair  and  that  of  their  horses. 

The  Greeks,  finding  their  present  position  inconvenient, 
determined  to  get  nearer  to  Plataea,  where  there  was  plenty 
of  water,  of  which  they  were  in  want ;  and  moving  along 
Cithaeron  by  Hysiae,  they  came  and  pitched  by  the  fount 
Gargaphia,  and  the  temenos  of  the  hero  Androcrates,  on 
some  low  hills  and  uneven  ground.  Here  a  dispute  arose 
between  the  Tegeates  and  the  Athenians,  as  to  which  should 
be  stationed  on  the  left  wing,  (the  claim  of  the  Spartans  to 
the  right  one  not  being  disputed ;)  each  pleaded  their  deeds 
in  former  and  late  times ;  but  the  recollection  of  Marathon 
made  the  Lacedaemonians  decide  in  favor  of  the  Athenians. 
The  army  was  then  drawn  up  as  follows.  1.*  On  the  right 
were  10,000  Lacedaemonian  hoplites  and  35,000  Helots; 
then  the  Tegeates,  1500.  2.  The  Corinthians,  5000;  their 
colonists  the  Potidaeans  from  Pallene,  300;  the  Arcadian 
Orchomenians,  600;  the  Sicyonians,  3000.  3.  The  Epi- 
daurians,  800;  the  Trcezenians,  1000;  the  Lepreates  of 
Elis,  200  ;  the  Mycenians  and  Tirynthians,  400 ;  the  Phli- 
asians,  1000.     4.  The  Hermionians,  300  ;  the  Eretrians  and 


*  The  numbers  1,  2,  3,  etc.,  in  this  and  the  next  paragraph,  indicate 
the  troops  which  were  opposed  to  each  other. 


BATTLE    OF    PLAT^A.  129 

Styreans  of  Eubaea,  600;  the  Chalcidians  of  the  same 
island,  400.  5.  The  Ambraciotes,  500  ;  the  Leucadians  and 
Anactorians,  800  ;  the  Paleans  from  Cephallenia,  200  ;  the 
Mgmetes,  500.  6.  The  Megarians,  3000;  the  Platseans, 
600;  the  Athenians,  8000,  commanded  by  Aristeides.  The 
whole  number  of  hoplites  therefore  was  33,700  ;  the  light 
troops,  inclusive  of  the  Helots,  amounted  to  69,500 ;  and  as 
1800  Thespians  came,  though  without  hoplite  arms,  to  join 
them,  the  entire  army  amounted  to  eleven  myriads  (110,000) 
of  fighting  men.* 

The  Persian  general  drew  up  his  troops,  under  the  advice 
of  the  Thebans,  in  the  following  order  :  1.  The  Persians,  in 
several  lines,  the  weaker  part  being  opposed  to  the  Tege- 
ates  ;  2.  The  Medes  ;  3.  The  Bactrians  ;  4.  The  Indians; 
5.  The  Sacians  ;  6.  The  Boeotians,  Locrians,  Melians,  Thes- 
salinas,  Macedonians,  and  1000  Phocians,  who  had  unwill- 
ingly joined  him,  the  rest  having  fled  to  Parnassus,  whence 
they  descended  and  harassed  the  Barbarians.  Herodotus 
reckons  the  Barbarians  at  300,000  men,  their  Greek  allies 
at  50,000. 

The  soothsayers  on  both  sides  (for  Mardonius  complied 
with  the  usage  of  the  Greeks)  declaring  that  the  sacrifices 
portended  defeat  to  those  who  should  attack,  the  two  armies 
remained  inactive  for  eight  days.  As  the  Greeks  were  con- 
stantly receiving  accessions  of  men  and  provisions  from  Pel- 
oponnesus, a  Theban  named  Timagenidas  advised  Mardo- 
nius to  send  a  body  of  horse  to  occupy  the  pass  of  Cithseron 
in  their  rear,  named  the  Three  Heads,  (rgsTg  xeyalal,)  or 
Oak  Heads,  (dovbg  xecpalal.)  This  advice  was  followed,  and 
that  very  night  the  Persian  horse  intercepted  at  the  pass 
five  hundred  beasts  laden  with  provisions  for  the  Grecian 
army.  Two  days  more  passed  away,  during  which,  at  the 
instigation  of  the  Thebans,  the  Persian  calvary  kept  harass- 


*  One  must  regret  the  absence  of  the  Achaeans  on  this  glorious  oc- 
casion. It  is  the  only  stain  on  the  fair  fame  of  that  most  estimable 
people. 

Q 


130  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

ing  the  Greeks.  At  length  Mardonius  resolved  to  give  no 
further  heed  to  soothsayers.  He  called  a  council.  The 
advice  of  Artabazus  and  the  Thebans  was  to  fall  back  to 
Thebes,  and  thence  to  send  large  quantities  of  gold  and 
silver  to  the  leading  men  in  the  different  Grecian  states, 
who  would  be  easily  induced  to  barter  national  independence 
for  private  gain.  Mardonius,  however,  in  reliance  on  the 
superiority  of  his  army,  resolved  to  give  battle  at  once ;  and 
sending  for  the  different  commanders,  he  told  them  to  prepare 
for  action  in  the  morning. 

In  the  middle  of  the  night,  Alexander  the  Macedonian 
rode  secretly  to  the  Athenian  outposts ;  and  calling  for 
the  commanders,  informed  them  of  Mardonius's  resolution. 
They  sent  to  inform  Pausanias,  who  proposed  that  the  Athe- 
nians, who  were  used  to  the  Persian  mode  of  fighting,  should 
take  the  right  wing.  The  change  was  therefore  made  ;  but 
in  the  morning  the  Thebans  perceived  it,  and  Mardonius, 
on  being  informed  of  it,  made  the  Persians  make  a  similar 
movement.  The  Lacedaemonians  then  returned  to  their 
former  position,  and  all  things  became  as  before.  Soon  after, 
Mardonius  sent  a  herald  to  the  Spartans,  taunting  them 
with  their  cowardice,  and  offering  to  put  the  whole  battle 
to  issue  on  a  combat  between  an  equal  number  of  them  and 
of  the  Persians.  They  made  no  reply  ;  and  Mardonius, 
confident  of  victory,  ordered  his  cavalry  to  advance.  The 
Greeks  suffered  greatly  from  the  showers  of  their  arrows, 
and  the  Persians  seized  and  filled  up  the  fount  of  Garga- 
phia,  which  was  the  only  watering-place  the  Greeks  had, 
as  they  were  cut  off  from  the  Asopus.  Most  of  the  leaders 
repaired  to  the  right  wing,  to  consult  with  Pausanias ;  and 
it  was  resolved,  as  they  had  now  no  water,  and  their  pro- 
visions were  all  delayed  in  Cithscron,  through  fear  of  the 
enemy,  that  they  should  move  in  the  night  to  the  Island  of 
Oeroe,  (as  a  piece  of  land  east  of  Plataea,  and  ten  stadia  from 
their  present  position,  was  named,  as  being  insulated  by  the 
River  Oeroe,  which,  flowing  from  Cithaeron,  divides  to  the 
breadth  of  three  stadia,  and  then  reunites;)  and  then  to  send 


BATTLE    OF    PLATiEA.  131 

one  half  of  the  army  to  fetch  the  servants  and  provisions  to 
the  camp. 

When  the  appointed  time  of  the  night  was  come,  the 
greater  part  of  the  Greeks  went  off  in  haste,  and  took  up 
their  position  at  the  Herseon  (temple  of  Hera)  before  Pla- 
taea.  Pausanias  then  ordered  the  Lacedaemonians  to  follow, 
but  Amompharetus,  the  leader  of  the  company  (l>6%og)  of 
Pitane,  refused  to  fly,  as  he  termed  it,  before  the  strangers, 
(Barbarians.)  Pausanias  did  all  he  could  to  move  him,  but 
in  vain.  The  Athenians,  meantime,  aware,  as  the  histo- 
rian says,  that  the  Spartans  usually  said  one  thing  and 
thought  another,  sent  a  horseman  to  ascertain  if  they  were 
really  setting  out.  The  envoy  was  witness  of  the  angry  dis- 
pute, and  Pausanias  requested  him  to  tell  the  Athenians  to 
come  and  stand  by  them,  as  they  were  now  left  alone.  Day 
dawned  while  they  were  debating.  Pausanias  would  stay 
no  longer  ;  he  moved  off  at  the  head  of  the  Lacedaemonians 
and  Tegeates,  keeping  upon  the  hills  through  fear  of  the 
Persian  horse ;  the  Athenians  set  out  at  the  same  time  along 
the  plain.  Pausanias  halted  about  ten  stadia  off,  at  the 
temple  of  Demeter,  on  the  River  Moloeis,  to  be  at  hand  to 
aid  the  obstinate  Amompharetus.  This  officer,  however, 
when  he  found  himself  really  left  alone,  hastened  to  follow, 
and  he  soon  came  up  and  joined  them. 

The  Persian  horse,  on  finding  the  ground  which  had  been 
occupied  by  the  Greeks  deserted,  pursued  after  them  ;  Mar- 
donius,  mounted  on  a  stately  white  horse,  and  surrounded 
by  a  thousand  chosen  warriors,  leading  them  in  person.  The 
rest  of  the  Barbarians,  when  they  saw  the  Persians  in  mo- 
tion, raised  their  banners  and  followed,  without  any  order. 
As  the  hills  concealed  the  Athenians  from  their  view,  the 
Persians  fell  only  on  the  Lacedaemonians  and  Tegeates. 
Pausanias  sent  to  pray  the  Athenians  to  come  to  their  aid; 
but  just  as  they  were  about  to  comply,  they  were  assailed 
by  the  medising  "Greeks,  and  the  Lacedaemonians  and  Te- 
geates had  to  stand  alone.  The  flights  of  arrows  reduced 
them  to   great  straits,  and  the   sacrifices  which   they  con- 


132  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

tinued  offering  promised  no  good  result,  when  Pausanias, 
looking  to  the  Heraeon,  implored  the  goddess  not  to  let 
their  hopes  be  deceived.  Immediately  the  sacrifice  proved 
favorable ;  the  Tegeates  advanced,  the  Lacedaemonians  fol- 
lowed :  a  furious  conflict,  hand  to  hand,  arose  at  the  temple 
of  Demeter,  Mardonius  fell  by  the  hand  of  a  Spartan,  his 
guards  were  slain  with  him,  and  the  rest  turned  and  fled  to 
their  camp  in  disorder.  Artabazus,  when  he  saw  them  in 
flight,  staid  no  longer  ;  but  at  the  head  of  his  division  of 
40,000  men,  made  the  best  of  his  way  to  the  Hellespont. 

The  Athenians,  on  their  side,  defeated  the  Greeks  op- 
posed to  them.  When  the  rest  of  the  Greeks  heard  of  ihe 
battle,  they  hasted  to  share  in  it ;  the  Corinthians  and  others 
keeping  along  the  upper  grounds,  the  Megarians  and  Phli- 
asians  along  the  plain.  These  last  were  fallen  on  by  the 
Theban  horse,  and  six  hundred  of  them  slain. 

The  Lacedaemonians  pursued  the  fugitives  to  their  wooden 
rampart,  on  which,  however,  they  could  make  no  impres- 
sion, till  the  Athenians,  who  were  used  to  such  attacks, 
came  up  ;  the  camp  was  then  forced,  and  the  Barbarians 
slaughtered  without  mercy.  The  historian  says,  that  of  the 
whole  army  not  three  thousand  men  escaped.  The  quan- 
tity of  gold,  silver,  rich  arms,  furniture,  and  clothes  found 
in  the  camp  amazed  the  Greeks,  unused  to  splendor.  By 
command  of  Pausanias,  all  was  collected  by  the  Helots ;  a 
tenth  was  then  sent  to  Delphi,  and  the  rest  divided.  The 
Helots  had,  however,  contrived  to  secrete  many  articles  of 
value,  which  they  sold  at  a  low  rate  to  the  iEginetes,  who 
thence  acquired  great  wealth. 

After  the  battle,  a  body  of  Mantineans  came  up,  and,  vexed 
at  their  having  had  no  share  in  the  victory,  they  followed 
the  flying  Barbarians  of  Artabazus  as  far  as  Thessaly.  A 
corps  of  Eleians  also  arrived  when  too  late.  The  leaders  of 
both  of  these  corps  were  punished  for  their  delay  on  their 
return  home. 

The  first  care  of  the  Greeks  was  to  bury  their  dead.  The 
Lacedaemonians  raised  three  barrows,  one  for  the  Irenes,  (of- 


BATTLE    OF    MYCALE.  133 

ficers,)  one  for  the  other  Spartans,  and  one  for  the  Helots. 
The  Tegeates  were  buried  under  another ;  the  Athenians, 
Meo-arians,  and  Phliasians  were  interred  together  in  the 
plain.  Shame  and  vanity  led  those  who  had  no  share  in 
the  action  to  raise  cenotaphs  or  empty  barrows  in  after 
times. 

On  the  eleventh  day  after  the  battle,  the  army  appeared 
before  Thebes,  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  Timagenidas, 
Attaginus,  and  all  those  who  had  medised.  Meeting  with  a 
refusal,  they  wasted  the  land  and  attacked  the  town.  The 
Thebans  then  agreed  to  surrender  the  guilty  persons,  but 
Attaginus  made  his  escape,  leaving  his  family,  which,  how- 
ever, Pausanias  was  too  just  to  punish  for  his  offence;  the 
others  he  took  to  Corinth,  and  put  to  death. 

The  very  day  the  victory  was  won  at  Platsa,  another, 
nearly  as  important,  was  gained  on  the  coast  of  Asia.  Sa- 
mian  envoys  having  come  to  the  fleet  at  Delos,  praying  for 
aid  to  shake  off  the  Persian  yoke,  Leotychides,  moved  by 
their  arguments,  and  by  the  ominous  name  of  one  of  them, 
Hegesistratus,  (Army -leader ,)  agreed  to  make  sail  for  Samos. 
The  Persians,  when  they  heard  of  the  approach  of  the 
Greeks,  quitted  Samos,  and  sailed  to  Mycale,  where  an  army 
of  sixty  thousand  men,  under  Tigranes,  lay  encamped. 
They  drew  their  ships  on  shore,  raising  a  rampart  of  stones 
and  timber  to  defend  them,  and  there  awaited  an  attack. 
The  Greeks  at  first  hesitated  to  follow  them :  at  length, 
however,  they  sailed,  prepared  for  action,  and  their  surprise 
was  great  when  they  saw  the  ships  all  hauled  up,  and  the 
shore  lined  with  troops.  Leotychides  then  sailed  as  close  to 
the  beach  as  he  could,  calling  out  to  the  Ionians,  in  imi- 
tation of  Themistocles  at  the  Artemision,  and  with  the  same 
design,  to  join  their  kindred  in  the  battle.  The  Persians 
had,  however,  disarmed  the  Samians  in  the  camp,  and  sent 
the  Milesians  to  keep  the  pass  of  the  mountains. 

The  Greeks,  having  landed,  marched  in  two  divisions 
aorainst  the  camp.  The  Athenians,  Corinthians,  Sicyonians, 
and  Trcezenians  moved  along  the  shore;  the  Lacedaemo- 
12 


134  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

nians  more  inland,  over  rugged  and  uneven  ground.  The 
former,  arriving  first,  attacked  and  carried  the  rampart ;  the 
Samians  and  other  Ionians  in  the  camp  gave  them  all  the  aid 
in  their  power ;  the  other  Barbarians  soon  turned  and  fled, 
but  the  Persians  resisted  bravely,  till  the  Lacedaemonians 
came  up.  The  rout  then  became  general ;  the  whole  Bar- 
barian army  was  cut  to  pieces ;  for  the  Milesians,  who 
guarded  the  only  passage  into  the  Peninsula,  either  led  them 
back  to  their  enemies,  or  slaughtered  them  themselves :  and 
but  a  small  number  reached  Sardes,  where  Xerxes  was  still 
residing.  The  Greeks,  having  plundered  the  camp,  and 
burnt  the  wall  and  ships,  returned  to  Samos. 

It  was  said  that,  as  they  were  advancing  to  the  attack,  a 
report  was  spread  among  them  that  the  Greeks  had  defeated 
Mardonius  in  Boeotia,  and  a  herald's  staff  was  seen  on  the  sea. 
It  was  further  remarked,  that  as  the  Persians  were  defeated 
at  a  temple  of  Demeter  in  Greece,  so  there  was  a  temple  of 
the  same  goddess  at  Mycale. 

Ionia  being  now  in  revolt  for  the  second  time,  the  Spar- 
tans proposed,  as  it  would  be  so  difficult  to  defend  them 
on  account  of  the  distance,  to  remove  the  Ionians  to  Greece, 
and  give  them  the  seaports  of  those  states  which  had  me- 
dised.  To  this,  however,  the  Athenians  would  not  consent. 
The  Samians,  Chians,  Lesbians,  and  other  islanders  were 
then  sworn  to  be  faithful  to  the  alliance,  and  the  fleet  sailed 
to  destroy  the  bridge  at  the  Hellespont.  Finding  this  al- 
ready broken,  and  the  winter  being  at  hand,  the  Peloponne- 
sians  returned  home.  The  Athenians  resolved  to  remain, 
and  attempt  the  recovery  of  the  Chersonese.  They  laid 
siege  to  Sestos,  which  was  gallantly  defended  by  its  Persian 
garrison ;  but  the  latter,  being  reduced  to  extremity  by 
famine,  deserted  it  in  the  night,  and  the  whole  country  then 
submitted.* 

*  Herodotus  ends  his  history  at  this  point. 


REBUILDING    OF    ATHENS.  135 


CHAPTER  XIII.* 

REBUILDING     OF    ATHENS. TREASON     AND    DEATH    OF     PAU- 

SANIAS. FLIGHT     OF      THEMISTOCLES. ASSESSMENT     OF 

ARISTEIDES.  HIS    DEATH. VICTORY    OF    CIMON    AT    THE 

EURYMEDON. 

As  soon  as  Greece  was  delivered  from  the  presence  of  the 
Barbarians,  the  people  of  the  different  states  returned  to 
their  homes.  The  Athenians  forthwith  set  about  rebuilding 
their  city,  which  was  now  only  a  heap  of  ruins.  When  they 
commenced  the  walls,  the  ^Eginetes  sent  word  to  Sparta, 
and  an  embassy  came  thence  to  represent  to  them  the  im- 
policy of  raising  fortifications  without  the  Isthmus,  which 
might  be  to  the  Barbarians  in  their  next  invasion  what 
Thebes  had  been  to  Mardonius.  The  true  reason  of  this 
Spartan  anxiety  Themistocles  plainly  saw  was  jealousy  and 
fear  of  the  rising  power  of  Athens;  but  he  knew  that  the 
Peloponnesian  power  was  too  great  to  be  resisted,  and  he 
deemed  it  best  to  have  recourse  to  art.  By  his  advice,  the 
Athenians  said  that  they  would  send  an  embassy  to  Sparta 
about  the  affair.  The  envoys  appointed  were  himself,  Aris- 
teides,  and  Abronychus.  The  Spartans  departed ;  and  then 
Themistocles,  having  strictly  charged  the  people  to  work 
without  ceasing  at  the  wall,  sparing  neither  sacred  nor  pro- 
fane edifice  for  materials,  set  out  alone  for  Sparta. 

On  his  arrival,  he  did  not  go  near  the  magistrates;  and  to 
those  who  asked  the  cause  he  said,  that  he  was  waiting  for 
his  colleagues,  and  wondered  much  at  their  delay.  Mean- 
time intelligence  came  that  the  walls  were  greatly  advanced  ; 
this  he  denied,  and  bade  them  not  trust  to  rumors,  but  send 
some  persons  to  ascertain  the  truth.  He  sent,  at  the  same 
time,  a  private  message  to  the  Athenians,  directing  them  to 
keep  the  ambassadors  as  hostages  for  the  safety  of  himself 
and  his  colleagues,  (who  were  now  arrived,)  for  he  feared 

*  Thucyd.  i.  89—  J 17.     Diod.     Plut.,  Them.,  Arist.,  and  Cimon. 


136  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

that  the  Spartans  might  detain  them.  As  soon  as  he  learned 
that  the  walls  were  sufficiently  advanced,  he  went  to  the  au- 
thorities and  openly  told  them  that  Athens  was  now  walled 
in,  and  that  the  Athenians  were  as  competent  judges  as  any 
of  what  was  for  their  own  and  the  general  weal.  The  Spar- 
tans dissembled  their  anger,  as  it  was  now  useless  to  show 
it,  and  the  envoys  were  dismissed  on  both  sides. 

Having  thus,  with  so  much  address,  secured  the  inde- 
pendence of  Athens,  Themistocles  advanced  another  step  in 
his  policy,  which  was  to  raise  her  to  empire.  Owing  to  him, 
in  a  great  measure,  she  was  become  the  first  naval  power 
of  Greece,  and  all  she  wanted  for  maintaining  her  eminence 
was  a  fortified  harbor.  That  of  Phaleron,  which  was  near- 
est the  city,  was  too  small,  and  he  had  already,  while  archon, 
(the  year  before  Xerxes  entered  Greece,)  commenced  secur- 
ing that  of  Piraeeus,*  which  was  at  a  greater  distance,  but  far 
more  capacious.  These  works  he  now  prevailed  on  the 
people  to  prosecute ;  and  it  does  not  appear  that  any  oppo- 
sition was  made  by  Lacedaemon.  The  wall  was,  however, 
raised  only  to  one  half  of  the  height  he  designed ;  but  it 
sufficed  for  all  the  purposes  of  defence,  and  Athens  might 
now  safely  bid  defiance  to  any  power  in  Greece. 

The  Lacedaemonians  sought  to  extend  their  influence  in 
another  way.  They  proposed,  with  a  great  appearance  of 
justice,  that  such  states  as  had  mcdised  should  be  excluded 
from  the  Amphictyonic  council.  Their  real  object  was,  by 
excluding  the  Thebans  and  Argives,  to  draw  the  chief  power 
to  themselves.  Themistocles  saw  through  their  design,  and 
probably  privately  exposed  it ;  in  public,  he  maintained  that 
it  would  be  unjust  to  punish  a  state  in  perpetuity  for  the 
crimes  of  its  government  at  a  particular  time.  Their  pro- 
posal was  therefore  rejected;  they,  however,  soon  had  their 
revenge  on  Themistocles. 

Athens,  like  almost  every  other  Grecian  state,  was  at  all 
times  a  theatre  of  faction.     The  aristocratic  party  was  still 

*  Piraeus  {Iliiqaiivg)  is  the  word  in  all  the  classic  authors,  both 
Greek  and  Latin.  We  doubt  if  Piraus,  the  word  commonly  employed, 
is  to  be  found  in  any  earlier  writer  than  Stephanus  Byzantinus. 


TREASON  AND  DEATH  OF  PAUSANIAS.       137 

strong,  and  was  supported  by  Sparta ;  the  people,  with  their 
usual  fickleness,  were  offended  at  being  frequently  reminded 
by  Themistocles  of  his  services,  and  little  inclined  to  support 
him  against  his  opponents,  the  chief  of  whom  were  Alc- 
maeon,  Cimon,  and  Xanthippus ;  the  influence  of  Sparta  was 
employed  to  ruin  him,  if  possible ;  and,  finally,  the  victor  at 
Salamis,  the  savior  of  Greece,  was  ostracised!    (Ol.  77,  2.) 

We  must  now  return  to  foreign  affairs.  The  year  after 
the  victories  of  PI ataea  and  Mycale,  (Ol.  75,  3,)  a  fleet  under 
Pausanias,  the  Athenian  squadron  being  commanded  by 
Aristeides  and  Cimon,  sailed  to  Cyprus,  and  expelled  the 
Persians  from  that  island.  It  then  proceeded  to  the  Pro- 
pontis,  and  laid  siege  to  Byzantion,  which  surrendered;  and 
several  Persians  of  rank  were  among  the  captives. 

Pausanias  had  not  strength  of  mind  to  bear  his  elevation ; 
he  became  haughty  and  tyrannical  to  the  allies,  and  began 
to  imitate  the  pomp  and  splendor  of  the  Orientals.  He 
even,  by  means  of  Doriscus,  an  Eretrian  who  was  settled  in 
Asia,  opened  a  treasonous  communication  with  the  court  of 
Persia ;  offering,  if  Xerxes  would  engage  to  give  him  one  of 
his  daughters  in  marriage,  to  reduce  all  Greece  beneath  his 
power.  He  set  Doriscus  over  Byzantion,  and  one  by  one 
the  Persian  nobles  were  suffered  to  escape.  Meantime  the 
Ionians  and  others,  disgusted  with  his  haughtiness,  put 
themselves  under  the  Athenian  admiral's  command ;  and  the 
Lacedaemonians,  having  heard  of  Pausanias's  conduct,  recalled 
him  for  the  purpose  of  inquiry.  He  was  found  guilty  of 
some  private  wrongs,  but  there  was  not  sufficient  evidence 
to  convict  him  of  treason.  It  was  resolved,  however,  not  to 
intrust  him  again  with  command  :  Dorkis  and  some  other 
Spartans  were  sent  out  with  a  small  fleet,  but  the  allies 
would  not  obey  them.  The  Lacedaemonians  then  returned 
home,  and  their  government  having  resolved  to  send  out  no 
more  generals,  lest,  as  they  said,  their  morals  should  be  cor- 
rupted, the  maritime  supremacy  was  tacitly  surrendered  to 
the  Athenians. 

Pausanias  could  not  rest  content  in  a  private  station.     He 
12*  R 


138  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

hired  a  trireme  at  Hermione,  and  proceeded  to  the  Helles- 
pont, where  he  renewed  his  negotiations  with  Artabazus, 
the  Persian  satrap.  Soon,  however,  a  herald,  bearing  the 
scytale,*  came  to  command  his  return  to  Sparta.  He 
obeyed,  trusting  to  his  wealth,  and  by  bribery  he  eluded 
inquiry.  He  now  turned  to  the  Helots,  offering  them  full 
citizenship  if  they  would  support  him  in  his  projects.  They 
gave  information  to  the  Ephors,  but  still  the  government 
hesitated.  At  length,  a  young  man,  named  Argilius,  whom 
he  was  sending  with  a  letter  to  Artabazus,  having  observed 
that  none  of  those  who  had  been  sent  hitherto  had  returned, 
opened  the  letter,  and,  finding  in  it  a  charge  to  put  the 
bearer  to  death,  went  and  showed  it  to  the  Ephors.  They 
had  now  sufficient  evidence :  but  they  would  hear  Pausanias 
confess  his  guilt.  By  their  direction,  Argilius  took  sanctuary 
in  the  temple  of  Poseidon  at  Taenaron,  and  raised  there  a 
double  hut  for  himself.  Pausanias,  hearing  he  was  there, 
hasted  to  him  ;  the  man  acknowledged  what  he  had  done ; 
Pausanias  excused  himself:  the  Ephors  who  were  concealed 
in  the  hut  heard  all,  and  went  away,  resolved  to  seize  him  in 
the  city  ;  but  one  of  them  giving  him  a  sign,  he  fled  and 
took  sanctuary  at  the  temple  of  the  Chalcicecos,  and  sheltered 
himself  in  a  small  building  belonging  to  it.  The  Ephors, 
taking  the  roof  and  doors  off  the  place  he  was  in,  built  it  up, 
and  set  a  guard  over  him.  When  they  saw  him  near  expir- 
ing with  hunger,  they  took  him  out  of  the  sacred  precincts, 
lest  they  should  be  polluted  by  death.  They  were  going  at 
first  to  fling  his  corpse  into  the  Kaias,  but  they  relented,  and 
gave  him  decent  sepulture. t     (Ol.  78,  1.) 

The  hero  of  Salamis  was  involved  in   the  fate  of  Pausa- 

*  When  a  Spartan  commander  was  sent  out,  two  round  sticks  of 
equal  size  were  made,  one  of  which  was  given  to  him,  the  other  kept  at 
home.  If  any  orders  were  to  be  transmitted  to  him,  the  Ephors  rolled 
a  narrow  slip  of  paper  round  their  stick,  and  wrote  them  on  it.  The 
slip  was  then  sent, and  the  general,  putting  it  on  his  stick, read  the  con- 
tents. (Plut.,  Lys.  19.)  It  does  not  appear  why  the  scytale  was  sent 
to  Pausanias,  who  had  no  command  at  this  time. 

t  Thuc.  i.  128—134. 


FLIGHT    OF    THEMISTOCLES.  139 

nias.  The  Lacedaemonians  found,  or  said  they  had  found, 
proofs  of  his  having  been  acquainted  with  his  projects,  and 
they  sent  envoys  to  Athens  to  accuse  him.  The  party  in 
power  there  readily  listened  to  the  charge,  and  persons  were 
sent  to  Argos,  where  he  was  then  residing,  to  seize  him. 
Having  timely  information,  he  fled  to  Corcyra,  to  the  peo- 
ple of  which  island  he  had  rendered  some  services.  In  dread 
of  his  enemies,  they  passed  him  over  to  the  opposite  coast 
of  Epeirus,  and  he  resolved  to  trust  himself  to  the  magna- 
nimity of  Admetus,  king  of  the  Molossians,  whom  he  knew 
to  be  his  enemy.  Admetus  was  from  home  when  he  arrived  ; 
he  implored  the  pity  of  the  queen,  and  when  her  husband 
returned,  she  gave  her  infant  child  to  her  guest,  and  bade 
him,  holding  it,  to  sit  as  a  suppliant  on  the  hearth,  such  being 
the  most  solemn  mode  of  supplication  among  that  people. 
Admetus  was  moved,  and  laid  aside  his  enmity;  but  soon 
came  envoys  from  Sparta  and  Athens  to  demand  him ;  and 
the  king,  too  generous  to  betray  and  too  weak  to  defend  him, 
aided  him  to  depart  and  escape  from  his  unrelenting  foes. 
(Ol.  78,  3.) 

Themistocles  now  saw  that  the  Persian  monarch  alone 
could  protect  him.  He  therefore  crossed  the  mountains  to 
Macedonia,  and  coming  to  the  port  of  Pydna,  and  finding 
there  a  merchantman  ready  to  sail  for  Ionia,  he  got  on  board. 
A  storm  drove  the  vessel  to  Naxos,  which  an  Athenian  fleet 
under  Cimon  was  then  besieging.  Themistocles  here  told 
the  captain  who  he  was,  and  threatened,  if  he  discovered 
him,  to  say  that  he  had  bribed  him  to  carry  him  to  Ionia; 
but  assured  him  that  if  he  would  save  him  he  would  find 
him  grateful.  He  then  desired  that  no  one  should  be  per- 
mitted to  leave  the  ship.  The  captain  assented  ;  the  vessel 
lay  for  a  day  and  a  night  off  the  island ;  they  then  made 
sail  for  Ephesus,  and  Themistocles,  having  rewarded  the 
captain,  conveyed  intelligence  of  his  retreat  to  his  friends 
at  Athens  and  Argos,  who  sent  him  as  much  of  his  property 
as  they  could  save;  the  remainder,  to  the  amount  of  eighty 
or  one  hundred  talents,  was  confiscated.     It  is  said  that  he 


140  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

had  been  worth  but  three  talents  when  he  first  engaged  in 
politics,  and  we  have  seen  some  instances  of  the  manner  in 
which  he  acquired  this  wealth. 

Knowing  how  well  Grecian  exiles  were  received  at  the 
court  of  Susa,  he  resolved — though  it  is  said  that  Xerxes 
had  set  a  price  of  two  hundred  talents  on  his  head  —  to  pro- 
ceed thither ;  making  little  doubt  that  he  should  be  able  to 
conciliate  the  young  Artaxerxes,  who  had  just  ascended  the 
throne.  (Ol.  78,  4.)  '  We  are  told  that  he  was  secretly  con- 
veyed in  a  covered  carriage,  as  if  he  were  a  Grecian  female 
who  had  been  purchased  for  some  Persian  noble.  His  re- 
ception at  court  was  such  as  he  had  anticipated.  He  prom- 
ised the  king  great  advantages,  but  required  a  year's  time 
in  order  to  learn  the  Persian  language,  so  as  to  be  able  to 
explain  them.  At  the  end  of  that  time  he  spoke  the  lan- 
guage with  ease,  and  he  rose  higher  than  any  Greek  had 
ever  done  in  the  royal  favor.  Artaxerxes,  deeming  it  best 
that  he  should  be  near  the  sea,  sent  him  down  to  Ionia,  as- 
signing him,  according  to  Persian  usage,  the  revenues  of 
Magnesia  (fifty  talents  a  year)  for  his  bread,  those  of  Lamp- 
sacus  for  his  wine,  and  those  of  Myus  for  his  meat,  (oyov.) 
It  was  said  that  he  had  pledged  himself  to  reduce  Greece 
under  the  yoke  of  Persia,  and  that,  finding  it  impossible, 
or  being  unwilling  to  perform  his  promise,  he  put  a  volun- 
tary end  to  his  life ;  others  said  that  he  died  a  natural  death. 
A  monument  was  raised  to  him  in  the  market  at  Magnesia; 
his  bones,  it  is  said,  were  by  his  own  orders  secretly  brought 
to  Attica,  and  there  interred.  We  are  not  informed  of  the 
year  of  his  death.* 

Such  was  the  end  of  Themistocles,  undoubtedly  one  of 
the  greatest  men  that  Greece  ever  produced.  His  character, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  far  from  faultless ;  but  nothing  will 
remove  the  stain  of  ingratitude  from  the  Athenian  people 
for  their  treatment  of  him ;  for,  questionless,  as  far  as  such 
an  effect  could  be  ascribed  to  one  man,  it  was  he  who  had 

*  Thuc.  i.  135—138. 


ASSESSMENT    OF    AR1STEIDES.  141 

made  them  what  they  now  were.  His  character  is  thus 
drawn  by  the  pen  of  Thucydides :  "  He  exhibited  most 
decidedly  the  strength  of  nature,  and  is  in  this  respect  far 
more  to  be  admired  than  any  other.  For  by  native  genius, 
without  having  previously  or  afterwards  had  instruction,  he 
was  with  slight  consideration  the  best  judge  of  present  affairs, 
and  the  best  guesser  at  the  turn  which  future  matters  would 
take.  What  he  had  in  hand,  he  could  execute  ;  of  that  with 
which  he  was  unacquainted,  he  could  form  a  good  judgment. 
He  clearly  foresaw  the  good  or  ill  of  what  was  as  yet  hidden  : 
and,  in  one  word,  by  the  force  of  nature  and  quickness  of 
thought,  he  was  qualified  better  than  any  other  to  act  promptly 
when  it  was  required."* 

Aristeides  and  Cimon  were  meantime  actively  engaged  in 
laying  the  foundation  of  the  future  power  and  dignity  of 
Athens.  When  the  Greeks  of  the  isles  and  of  the  coast  of 
Asia  had  agreed  to  place  themselves  under  the  command 
of  the  Athenians,  and  to  continue  the  war,  it  was  necessary 
to  determine  what  share  of  the  burden  each  should  bear. 
The  task  of  regulating  it  was  committed  to  Aristeides,  and 
he  decided  that  some  of  the  allies,  such  as  the  Chians,  should 
keep  a  certain  number  of  ships  at  sea,  while  others  should 
contribute  an  annual  sum  of  money.  This  sum,  which  he 
assessed  in  so  equitable  a  manner  that  it  became  the  theme 
of  praise  to  succeeding  ages,  amounted  to  460  talents.  The 
treasury  for  these  contributions  (yogog)  was  in  the  sacred 
Isle  of  Delos,  where  deputies  of  the  allies  met  to  consult :  the 
treasurers,  named  Greek-treasurers,  ('EXXrjvoTajulcti,)  were 
Athenians.  This  was  the  foundation  of  the  Thalassocracy 
or  naval  dominion  of  Athens.     (Ol.  75,  4.)     We  must  guard 

*  The  reader  will  observe  that  we  rarely  relate  anecdotes  from  Plu- 
tarch :  the  truth  is,  we  put  little  faith  in  them.  Thus  he  says  that 
Themistocles's  father  took  him,  and  pointing  to  the  old  triremes  that 
were  lying  to  rot  on  the  beach,  told  him  that  so  the  people  treated  their 
demagogues.  Now,  as  this  must  have  been  in  the  time  of  the  Peisistra- 
tids,  Athens  could  hardly  yet  have  had  demagogues.  Themistocles 
himself  was  the  first  person,  not  a  genuine  Eupatrid,  who  rose  to  im- 
portance in  the  state. 

tnrnr 


142  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

against  the  error  of  supposing  that  the  Athenians  acquired 
the  supremacy  over  Greece  in  general.  Sparta  was  supreme 
in  Peloponnesus,  as  before  ;  the  rest  of  Greece  was  indepen- 
dent of  both.  As  the  Athenians  and  most  of  their  allies 
were  of  the  Ionian  race,  and  their  rivals,  the  Spartans  and 
their  confederates,  of  the  Dorian,  historians  fell  also  into  the 
incorrect  habit  of  regarding  all  the  Greeks  as  adhering  to 
the  Dorian  or  the  Ionian  principle  and  party. 

Nine  years  afterwards,  (Ol.  78,  1,)  Aristeides  died,  so  poor 
that  he  had  to  be  buried  at  the  public  cost ;  and  the  state  un- 
dertook to  provide  for  his  children.  If  we  may  credit  an 
anecdote  given  by  Plutarch,  his  right  to  the  title  of  Just 
might  be  contested.  He  tells  us  that  on  some  occasion  the 
allies  all  swore  to  some  matter  in  the  most  solemn  manner, 
Aristeides  swearing  on  the  part  of  the  Athenians.  Some 
time  after,  it  appeared  to  be  for  the  interest  of  the  Athenians 
not  to  keep  the  oath,  and  Aristeides  told  them  to  act  for 
their  advantage,  leaving  the  guilt  of  the  perjury  to  fall  on  him. 
Again,  it  is  said,  that  when  the  Athenians  talked  of  removing 
the  treasure  from  Delos  to  Athens,  and  the  Samians  remon- 
strated, Aristeides  replied,  that  doubtless  it  was  not  just,  but 
it  was  advantageous.  In  a  word,  says  Theophrastus  of  him, 
in  private  and  domestic  matters  he  was  perfectly  upright ;  in 
public  affairs  he  acted  for  the  advantage  of  his  country, 
which  often  required  injustice. 

Aristeides  was  the  agent  in  giving  further  advance  to  the 
democracy.  In  consequence  of  the  destruction  of  their  prop- 
erty during  the  Persian  invasion,  the  weight  and  influence 
of  the  upper  ranks  were  greatly  diminished,  while  the  in- 
ferior classes  had  merited  so  well  of  their  country  in  the 
war,  and  had  in  consequence  become  of  such  influence  in 
the  state,  that  the  very  highest  honors  could  no  longer  be 
with  safety  withheld  from  them.*  Aristeides  therefore  was 
the  author  of  a  decree  opening  the  archontate — now,  how- 
ever, nothing  but  a  splendid  pageant  —  to  all  citizens,  sub- 
ject of  course  to  the  Dokimasy  and  Euthjne. 

*  Arist.  Pol.  ii.  8. 


FURTHER    VICTORIES    OF    CIMON.  143 

Under  the  guidance  of  Athens,  the  war  against  the  Per- 
sians was  continued.  Cimon  (Ol.  76,  1)  sailed  with  a  fleet 
to  the  coast  of  Thrace,  and  laid  siege  to  Ei'on  on  the  Stry- 
mon.  The  Persian  garrison  made  a  gallant  defence :  and 
finally  Boges,  the  governor,  rather  than  surrender,  cast  all 
his  gold  and  silver  into  the  river ;  and  having  raised  a  huge 
pile  of  wood,  slew  his  wives,  children,  and  slaves,  and  laid 
their  bodies  on  it ;  then  setting  fire  to  it,  he  flung  himself 
into  the  flames :  the  garrison  surrendered  at  discretion.* 
Doriscus  was  attacked  in  vain,  but  all  the  other  Persian  gar- 
risons in  Europe  were  reduced.  Cimon  then,  as  executor 
of  an  Amphictyonic  decree,  turned  his  arms  against  the  pi- 
ratic Dolopians  of  the  Isle  of  Scyros,  whom  he  expelled,  and 
filled  the  island  with  Athenian  colonists.  On  this  occasion 
he  sought  and  found  (as  was  supposed)  the  bones  of  the 
hero  Theseus,  who  had  died  in  this  island  eight  hundred 
years  before;  and  he  brought  them  in  his  own  trireme  to 
Athens,  —  an  act  which  gained  him  great  favor  with  the 
people.f 

By  this  time,  some  of  the  confederates  were  grown  weary 
of  war,  and  began  to  murmur  at  the  toils  and  expense  to 
which  it  put  them.  The  people  of  Naxos  were  the  first 
who  positively  refused  to  contribute  any  longer ;  but  the 
Athenians,  who  had  tasted  of  the  sweets  of  command,  would 
not  now  permit  the  exercise  of  free  will  to  their  allies.  Ci- 
mon appeared  (Ol.  78,  3)  with  a  large  fleet  before  Naxos ; 
the  Naxians  defended  themselves  with  vigor,  but  were  at 
length  forced  to  submit ;  and  the  Athenians  had  the  hardi- 
hood to  reduce  them  to  the  condition  of  subjects  to  Athens 
—  an  example  which  they  soon  followed  in  other  cases. 
Most  of  those  allies  who  were  to  give  personal  service 
agreed,  in  order  to  escape  being  taken  from  their  homes,  to 
give  money  and  empty  ships  instead  of  service.  Thus  the 
Athenian  navy  increased  greatly,  and  an  irresistible  force 
could  at  once  be  brought  against  any  state  that  hesitated  or 
withheld  its  contribution. 

*  Herod,  vii.  107.  t  Plut.  Cimon,  8. 


144  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

After  the  reduction  of  Naxos,  Cimon  sailed  over  to  the 
coast  of  Asia,  and  learning  that  the  Persian  generals  had 
assembled  a  large  fleet  and  army  in  Pamphylia,  he  collected 
a  fleet  of  two  hundred  triremes  at  Cnidos,  with  which  he  pro- 
ceeded to  the  coast  of  that  country,  and  laid  siege  to  the  city 
of  Phaselis,  which,  though  Greek,  obeyed  the  Persian  mon- 
arch. Having  reduced  it  to  submission,  he  resolved  to  pro- 
ceed and  attack  the  Persian  fleet  and  army,  which  he  learned 
were  lying  at  the  River  Eurymedon.  On  his  arrival,  the  Per- 
sian fleet,  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  triremes,  fearing  at  first 
to  fight  till  eighty  Phoenician  vessels,  which  they  were  ex- 
pecting, should  come  up,  kept  in  the  river ;  but  finding  that 
the  Greeks  were  preparing  to  attack,  they  put  out  to  sea 
and  engaged  them.  The  action  did  not  continue  long  :  the 
Barbarians  fled  to  the  land  ;  two  hundred  ships  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  victors,  and  several  were  destroyed.  Without 
a  moment's  delay,  Cimon  disembarked  his  men,  and  led  them 
against  the  land  forces :  the  resistance  of  the  Persians  was 
obstinate  for  some  time,  but  at  last  they  turned  and  fled, 
leaving  their  camp  a  prey  to  the  conquerors  ;  and  Cimon  had 
thus  the  rare  glory  of  having  gained  two  important  victories 
in  the  one  day.  Hearing  then  that  the  eighty  Phoenician 
vessels  were  at  Hydros  in  the  Isle  of  Cyprus,  he  immediately 
sailed  thither,  and  took  or  destroyed  the  whole  of  them. 

The  victory  on  the  Eurymedon  may  be  regarded  as  the 
termination  of  the  conflict  between  Greece  and  Persia.  The 
year  after  it,  (Ol.  78,  4,)  Xerxes  was  assassinated,  and  the 
usual  confusion  took  place  in  the  court  of  Susa.  It  is  said* 
that  some  years  afterwards,  (Ol.  82,  4,)  a  treaty,  named  the 
Peace  of  Cimon,  was  concluded  between  the  Athenians  and 
King  Artaxerxes,  of  which  the  conditions  were  these  :  the 
Greek  cities  in  Asia  should  be  independent ;  no  Persian  ship 
of  war  should  appear  in  the  seas  from  the  Cyanean  Isles  at 
the  entrance  of  the  Bosporus  in  the  Euxine  to  the  Chelido- 
nian  Isles  off  the  coast  of  Pamphylia ;  no  Persian  com- 
mander should  lead  an  army  within  that  space  nearer  to  the 

*  Diodor.  xii.  4.     Plut.  Cimon,  13.    Nepos,  Cimon. 


VICTORY    OF    CIMON    AT    THE    EURYMEDON.  145 

coast  than  a  day's  journey  for  a  horse,  (t.  e.  300  stadia :)  the 
Athenians,  on  their  side,  should  not  molest  the  king's 
territory. 

The  actual  existence  of  such  a  treaty  has  been  disputed 
in  both  ancient  and  modern  times.  It  is  not  noticed  by 
either  Herodotus  or  Thucydides,  and  it  was  the  opinion  of 
Callisthenes  *  (a  writer,  by  the  way,  of  no  great  repute)  that 
there  was  no  such  treaty  made,  but  that  in  effect  the  Persian 
fleets  and  armies  did  keep  at  those  distances.  On  the  other 
hand,  Plutarch  says  that  it  was  in  a  collection  of  decrees 
formed  by  one  Craterus ;  that  an  altar  to  Peace  was  raised 
on  account  of  it  at  Athens,  and  great  honors  bestowed  on 
Callias,  who  had  headed  the  embassy  to  Susa.  Isocrates, 
Demosthenes,  and  Lycurgus f  speak  of  the  conclusion  of  the 
treaty  as  a  matter  of  certainty  ;  Demosthenes  expressly  names 
Callias,  and  his  embassy  to  Susa  is  mentioned  by  Herodotus,  J 
though  he  does  not  say  what  the  cause  of  it  was.  Again,  when 
Alcibiades,  (Ol.  92,  !..)§  treating  on  the  part  of  the  king 
with  the  Athenians,  required  that  he  should  be  allowed  to 
sail  along  his  own  coast  wherever  and  with  as  many  ships 
of  war  as  he  pleased,  the  Athenian  deputies  thought  the 
demand  so  unreasonable  that  they  broke  off  the  conference. 
Would  it  not  appear  from  this  that  there  had  been  a  pre- 
vious treaty?  The  chief  difficulty  seems  to  lie  in  the  first 
article,  as  it  is  well  known  that  the  cities  of  the  coast  were 
not  independent,  and  continued  to  pay  tribute  to  the  Per- 
sians ;  ||  but  perhaps  all  that  was  covenanted  was,  that  they 

*  Callisthenes  was  one  of  the  followers  of  Alexander  the  Great,  by 
whom  he  was  put  to  death.  His  Grecian  History  only  embraced  the 
period  from  the  peace  of  Antalcidas  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  Phocian 
war.     Polybius  and  Cicero  speak  very  slightingly  of  him. 

t  Tsoc.  Panegyr.  65;  Areop.  156 ;  Panath.  244  ;  Demosth.  False  Em- 
bassy 428.     Lycurg.  v.  Leocrates,  c.  17. 

X  vii.  151. 

§  Thuc.  viii.  56.     See  below,  Part  II.  ch.  ix. 

||  See  above,  p.  89,  note.  The  revenues  of  Grecian  cities  of  the  coast, 
such  as  Lampsacus  and  Magnesia,  were  given  by  the  Persian  kings  to 
Themistocles,  Demaratus,  and  others,  and  their  posterity  continued  to 

13  s 


146  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

should  be  governed  by  their  own  laws,  and  be  free  from  the 
presence  of  Persian  troops.  At  all  events,  there  was  peace* 
or  at  least  a  suspension  of  hostilities,  with  Persia  from  the 
death  of  Cimon  till  the  time  when  the  defeat  of  the  Athenians 
in  Sicily  transferred  the  Peloponnesian  war  to  the  coast  of 
Asia. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 


CONSTITUTIONS    OF  THESSALY,  BCEOTIA,  AND    OTHER  PARTS  OF 
GREECE.  MILITARY    AND  NAVAL  AFFAIRS.  LITERATURE. 

With  the  glorious  conclusion  of  the  war  with  Persia  we 
terminate  the  first  period  of  Grecian  history.  The  spirit  of 
independence,  arms  and  armor  of  greater  size  and  strength, 
superior  discipline,  and  perhaps  greater  physical  force,  en- 
abled the  Greeks  to  evince  that  superiority  which  the  Euro- 
peans have  always  shown  in  their  conflicts  with  the  Asiatics. 
Henceforth  the  court  of  Persia  abandoned  all  thoughts  of 
attempting  the  subjugation  of  Europe. 

We  have  denominated  this  the  Aristocratic  period,  be- 
cause, until  the  close  of  it,  the  political  power  in  all  the  states 
of  Greece  was  in  the  hands  of  the  nobles,  or  those  possessed 
of  hereditary  wealth  and  consideration.  The  people,  at  length, 
in  some  states  had,  chiefly  in  consequence  of  trade,  risen  in 
power  and  consequence  ;  and  the  aristocracy,  as  is  its  nature, 
had  shrunk  to  an  oligarchy,  which  had  lost  the  noble,  gene- 
rous feelings  of  the  old  aristocracy,  and  was  cruel  and  op- 
pressive where  it  had  the  power  ;  the  people,  on  the  other 
hand,  became  insolent,  tyrannic,  and  unjust.  The  next  di- 
vision of  our  history  will  present  the  ceaseless  struggle  of 

enjoy  them  ;  and  when  the  Athenians  (Thuc.  v.  1)  expelled  the  people 
of  Delos  from  their  island,  the  Persian  satrap  Pharnaces  gave  them  an 
asylum  at  Atramyttium  on  the  coast  of  iEolis. 


CONSTITUTIONS    OF    THESSALY    AND    BGEOTIA.         147 

these  two  opposite  and  hostile  principles.  Sparta,  Tegea, 
Bceotia,  and  Thessaly  are  the  chief  seats  of  oligarchy ;  Athens, 
Argos,  Mantineia,  Megara,  and  Elis,  those  of  democracy. 

The  constitutions  of  Sparta  and  Athens,  the  heads  of  these 
principles,  have  been  already  displayed.  We  will  now  briefly 
notice  those  of  the  states  next  in  importance,  and  conclude 
with  a  sketch  of  the  military  affairs  and  the  literature  of  this 
period. 

The  Thesprotians,  when  they  made  the  conquest  of  Thes- 
saly, reduced  a  part  of  the  original  inhabitants  to  a  serfship 
similar  to  the  Laconian  Helotism.  The  Thessalian  serfs 
were  named  Penests,  (neviajai ;  *)  they  tilled  the  lands,  on 
conditions  similar  to  those  of  the  Helots ;  like  them,  too, 
they  were  employed  as  light  troops  in  war.  But*  the  main 
strength  of  Thessaly  lay  in  its  cavalry,  composed  of  the 
nobles,  who  appeared  in  complete  panoply  on  strong  war- 
horses.  No  part  of  Greece  presents  such  a  resemblance  to 
Europe  in  the  middle  ages  as  Thessaly.  Among  the  Thes- 
salian nobles,  some  families  exercised  a  preponderating  in- 
fluence :  such  were  the  Aleuads  of  Larissa  and  the  Scopads 
of  Crannon,  who  were  dynasts,  (dvvuoxui,\)  or  princes  in  the 
country.  As  the  cities  of  Latium  chose  a  Dictator  to  com- 
mand their  united  forces  in  war,  so  the  Thessalian  nobles 
appointed  one  of  their  number  for  that  purpose,  under  the 
name  of  Tagos,  (raj6gt)  or  regulator.  There  was  a  Demos 
in  Thessaly,  similar,  it  would  seem,  to  the  Laconian  Pe- 
ricecians,  but  treated  with  less  consideration,  and  therefore 
disposed  to  revolt. 

The  principal  towns  of  Bceotia  were  united  in  a  military 
federation,  at  the  head  of  which  were  officers  named  Bce- 
otarchs.  Thebes  had  the  hegemony,  {fyefioviat)  or  suprem- 
acy ;  and  most  of  the  towns,  particularly  Orchomenus  and 
Thebes,  were  oligarchic.  The  government  of  Thespiae,  the 
enemy  of  Thebes,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  ancient  nobility 
of  the  family  of  the  Thespiads,  whose   rule   was   mild    and 

*  From  nivouai,  l  to  be  poor.'' 

t  This  word  is  mostly  used  in  a  bad  sense.    Arist.  Pol.  iv.  5. 


148  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

paternal.     Platsea,  to  escape  the  oppression  of  Thebes,  put 
herself,  as  we  have  seen,  under  the  protection  of  Athens. 

Argos  had  at  one  time  extended  her  hegemony  over  the 
whole  of  Argolis,  and  Sicyon,  and  Phlius ;  but  with  the  aid 
of  Sparta,  the  towns  had  all  shaken  it  off.  After  her  great 
defeat  by  Cleomenes,  several  of  the  Pericecian  towns,  such  as 
Cleonae,  Midea,  and  Mycenae,  strove  to  become  independent. 
When  the  Argives  succeeded  in  reducing  any  of  these  towns, 
they  removed  the  inhabitants  to  Argos,  giving  them  rights  of 
citizenship.  This  practice,  hatred  of  Sparta,  and  close  union 
with  Athens,  quickened  the  development  of  the  democratic 
principle  at  Argos. 

The  aristocracy  in  Elis  had  become  an  oppressive  oligar- 
chy, when  (Ol.  77,  2,)  a  syncecism,  (avvoixiofibg,)  or  union  of 
several  of  the  small  towns,  was  effected,  and  the  city  of  Elis 
formed  from  them.*  Democracy,  in  consequence,  rapidly 
advanced;  but  as  the  Eleians  were  of  all  the  Greeks  the 
most  devoted  to  a  country  life,  and  the  practice  was  in- 
troduced of  sending  judges  through  the  land,  which  kept 
the  people  from  resorting  to  the  town,  they  long  escaped 
the  curse  of  ochlocracy,  or  mob-rule. 

Tegea  and  Mantineia,  standing  in  the  same  elevated  plain, 
were,  the  one  oligarchic  and  allied  with  Sparta,  the  other  de- 
mocratic and  connected  with  Argos,  with  whose  aid  it  effect- 
ed a  union  (syncecism)  of  its  four  rural  communities  with  the 
chief  town  f  —  a  measure  which  necessarily  strengthened  the 
democratic  principle. 

Megara,  even  before  the  Persian  war,  gave  Greece  the 
fost  example  of  a  wild  ochlocracy,  which  was  naturally  suc- 
ceeded by  an  oligarchy,  when  the  persons  of  rank  and  wealth 
rallied  against  the  rabble.  J 

The  military  condition  of  Greece  at  this  time  was  as  follows. 

The  Hoplites,  (6nXliou})  or  fully  armed  soldiers,  were  the 

main  strength  of  the  Grecian  armies.     These  were  the  militia 


*  Diod.  xi.  54.  Strab.  viii.  3.         t  Xen.  Hell.  v.  2.  7.  Strab.  ut  sup. 
t  Arist.  Pol.  iv.  12  ;  v.  2.  4.     See  above,  p.  68. 


MILITARY    AND    NAVAL    AFFAIRS.  149 

of  the  different  towns,  composed  entirely  of  those  who  had 
property  to  defend,  and  who  served  without  pay,  finding  their 
own  arms,  equipments,  and  provisions.  Most  towns  had  a 
list  (xur&Xoyo^  of  the  citizens  from  the  age  of  eighteen  to 
sixty,  who  were  bound  to  serve  as  hoplites,  and  they  were 
called  out  when  required  according  to  their  place  in  this  cat- 
alogue. The  arms  of  the  hoplite  were  the  same  as  those 
used  in  the  heroic  age.  The  inferior  citizens  and  the  serfs 
(in  the  states  which  had  such)  served  as  light  troops,  (ipdol}) 
that  is,  as  archers,  slingers,  and  dartmen.  The  Thessalians, 
Boeotians,  Phocians,  and  Locrians  alone  at  this  time  had 
cavalry  in  their  armies. 

The  usual  mode  of  drawing  up  troops  was  in  phalanx ;  that 
is,  in  a  close  body,  the  depth  and  breadth  varying  according 
to  custom  or  circumstances.  In  a  confederate  army,  as  at 
Platsea,  the  troops  of  each  state  occupied  separate  ground. 
The  troops  of  the  same  state  were,  as  at  Marathon,  placed 
according  to  their  phyles,  or  similar  political  divisions.  The 
Spartans  were  divided  into  six  mora,  (fiogai,)  or  regiments, 
which  varied  in  strength  from  400  to  900  men,*  according 
to  the  number  of  men  called  out :  each  mora  was  divided 
into  four  lochi,  (X6%oi})  or  companies.  The  mora  was  com- 
manded by  a  Polemarch.  The  Lacedaemonian  Pericecians, 
and  also  the  Neodamodes,  were  probably  arranged  in  a  sim- 
ilar manner. 

Before  engaging,  the  Greeks  always  offered  sacrifices ;  and 
they  did  not  give  battle  till  the  soothsayer  had  declared  the 
signs  in  the  entrails  of  the  victim  favorable.  Similar  sacri- 
fices were  made,  especially  by  the  Spartans,  previous  to  pass- 
ing their  frontiers  on  any  military  expedition.  It  is  natural 
to  suppose" that  there  was  frequently  an  understanding  be- 
tween the  general  and  the  soothsayer,  and  that  the  signs 
were  declared  to  be  favorable,  or  the  reverse,  as  suited  the 
plans  and  intentions  of  the  commander.  After  a  victory,  a 
trophy  (xgonaXov)  of  wood,  hung  with  arms,  was  erected, 
and  the  enemies'  dead  were   restored   on  their  sending  a 

*  Plut.  Pelop.  17. 
13* 


150  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

herald  to  demand  them.     In  a  naval   victory,  the  wrecks  of 
the  enemies'  vessels  were  carried  off. 

The  ships  of  the  Greeks  of  the  early  ages  were  undecked, 
and  served  merely  for  passage.  The  Phocians  are  said  to 
have  made  the  first  long  ships,  as  they  were  called  :  these 
were  the  pentecontors,  or  fifty-oared  vessels,  twenty-five 
rowers  at  a  side.  The  Erythrseans  first  constructed  vessels 
with  two  benches  of  oars;  and  finally  (Ol.  19,  1)  the 
Corinthian  Ameinocles  built  for  the  Samians  triremes, 
^TQir^eig^  or  ships  with  three  benches  of  oars.  These  ships 
were  decked ;  and  besides  the  rowers  and  mariners,  of  whom 
there  were  two  hundred,  they  usually  carried  about  thirty 
hoplites  [enlSarav^  to  fight  them.  The  trireme  had  at  its 
head  a  strong  beak  of  metal ;  and  one  of  the  principal 
manoeuvres  in  a  sea-fight  was  to  strike  the  enemy's  ships  in 
the  side  with  this  beak,  and  thus  sink  them.  The  earliest 
sea-fight  on  record  is  one  between  the  Corinthians  and  their 
colonists  of  Corcyra.     (Ol.  28.  2.) 

At  the  head  of  the  literature  of  Greece  stand  the  wonder- 
ful Homeric  poems,  which  record  the  manners  and  ideas  of 
the  heroic  age,  and  which  were  to  the  Greeks  of  all  times 
their  most  precious  heritage  and  most  valued  records. 
Whether  these  poems,  which  were  written  in  the  Ionic  dia- 
lect, and  were  evidently  composed  on  the  coast  of  Asia,  are 
the  production  of  one  or  of  many  minds  ;  whether  they  were 
originally  written,  or  were  transmitted  orally  for  centuries ; 
how  far  they  may  be  regarded  as  possessing  a  claim  to 
historic  credibility,  —  are  questions  which  engage,  and  long 
perhaps  will  engage,  the  attention  of  the  learned.  In  any 
case,  we  possess  in  them  a  faithful  picture  of  the  manners 
of  ancient  Greece,  and  a  source  of  one  of  the  highest  enjoy- 
ments of  which  the  human  mind  is  capable. 

Besides  the  Homeric  poems,  the"  Greeks  of  this  age  pos- 
sessed those  of  the  poets  named  Cyclic,  (circling,)  as  they 
sang  a  traditional  cycle  or  circle  of  events,  from  the  origin 
of  the  world  to  the  death  of  Ulysses.  Of  these  poets,  whose 
works  have  all  perished,  the  following  were  the  principal : 


LITERATURE.  151 

Stasinus  of  Cyprus,  who  sang,  in  a  poem  of  eleven  books, 
named  the  Cypria,  the  events  of  the  Trojan  war  anterior 
o  the  action  of  the  Ilias.  Arctinus  of  Miletus,  the  poet  of 
the  ^Ethiopis,  which  related  in  five  books  the  expedition  and 
death  of  Memnon  at  Troy  :  he  also  composed  the  Destruc- 
tion of  Troy,  another  poem  of  two  books.  Lesches,  of 
Mytilene,  who,  in  the  Little  Ilias,  sang  in  four  books  the 
events  from  the  contest  of  Ulysses  and  Ajax  to  the  building 
of  the  wooden  horse.  Augias  related  in  five  books  the 
returns  of  the  chiefs  from  Troy  ;  and  Eugammon  sang  in 
the  Telegonia,  in  two  books,  the  story  of  Ulysses  after  his 
return.  There  were  also  poems  on  the  adventures  of 
Hercules,  Theseus,  and  other  heroes. 

Hesiod,  of  Ascra,  in  Bceotia,  gave  the  earliest  example 
of  didactic  poetry  in  his  Works  and  Days.  He  also  sang 
the  Theogony,  or  origin  of  the  gods  and  the  world  ;  and  the 
heroes  and  heroines  of  ancient  days  were  celebrated  in  his 
verses,  which  were  sung  at  festivals,  like  those  of  Homer. 

Tyrtaeus  animated  the  Spartans  in  the  Messenian  wars  by 
his  spirit-stirring  strains.  Theognis  and  Solon,  Mimner- 
mus  and  Simonides,  gave  lessons  of  morals  in  their  Ele- 
gies. The  lyric  muse  animated  Alcman,  Terpander,  Al- 
caeus,  Stesichorus,  Ibycus,  Anacreon,  and  others,  and  the 
poetesses  Sappho,  Erinna,  and  Corinna ;  and,  finally,  in 
Pindar  revealed  her  utmost  strength.  The  drama,  of  im- 
memorial use  in  Attica,  rose  into  dignity  towards  the  time 
of  the.  Persian  wars :  Thespis  so  far  improved  it  as  to  pass 
for  its  inventor  ;  Phrynichus,  famed  for  the  natural  charms 
and  sweetness  of  his  lyric  choruses,  raised  it  to  a  still  higher 
degree  of  perfection :  following,  perhaps,  the  ancient  usage 
of  the  drama,  he  presented  on  the  scene  the  recent  capture 
of  Miletus,  (Ol.  71,  3,)  and  the  party  which  had  prevented 
the  people  from  giving  more  effectual  aid  had  him  fined  one 
thousand  drachmas,  and  the  piece  suppressed.*  ^Eschylus, 
who  was  destined  to  raise  the  drama  to  its  utmost  point  of 
sublime  perfection,  had  already  (Ol.  70,  2)    presented  his 

*  Herod,  vi.  21. 


152  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

first  piece.  This  warrior-bard  fought  at  Marathon  and  Sal  a- 
mis ;  and  (Ol.  77,  1)  he  brought  on  the  stage  before  the 
triumphant  Athenians  the  flight  of  Xerxes  after  the  defeat  of 
Sal  amis.  In  vigor,  sublimity,  and  all  the  higher  qualities  of 
poetry,  the  dramas  of  iEschyl us  remain,  and  ever  will  remain, 
unsurpassed  and  rarely  approached. 

These  poets,  with  few  exceptions,  breathe  the  tone  and 
spirit  of  genuine  and  high-souled  aristocracy.  They  in- 
culcate veneration  for  religion  and  the  gods ;  they  inspire 
respect  for .  law  and  for  ancient  institutions;  virtue,  both 
public  and  private,  is  the  theme  of  their  praise ;  high  birth, 
attended  by  suitable  deeds,  is  extolled ;  the  pomp  and  splen- 
dor of  courts,  and  the  liberal  hospitality  of  princes  and  no- 
bles, meet  their  due  encomiums ;  and  many  of  the  lyrists 
inculcate  the  precepts  of  a  philosophy  akin  to  that  after- 
wards taught  in  the  gardens  of  Epicurus. 

Philosophy,  towards  the  close  of  this  period,  rose  in  Ionia 
above  the  simple  moral  wisdom  and  personified  cosmogonies 
of  the  elder  times.  Thales,  Anaximander,  Xenophanes,  and 
above  all  Pythagoras,  taught  the  wisdom  which  they  are  sup- 
posed to  have  learned  in  the  East.  Their  dogmas,  however, 
fall  not  within  the  province  of  history.  The  papyrus  of 
Egypt  now  supplying  a  more  abundant  material  than  had 
yet  been  enjoyed  for  writing,  histories  began  to  be  composed 
in  prose,  verse  having  been  the  vehicle  in  which  the  memory 
of  events  had  hitherto  been  preserved.  The  names  of  Heca- 
tseus  of  Miletus,  Charon  of  Lampsacus,  and  others,  and  a 
few  short  fragments  of  their  works,  have  reached  us ;  but  no 
contemporary  narrative  of  the  events  of  this  period  remains, 
and  our  chief  or  only  authority  is  Herodotus,  who  was  born 
but  four  years  before  the  passage  of  Xerxes  into  Greece. 
His  honest  narrative  was  mostly  derived  from  hearsay  and 
report,  and  the  reader  must  have  observed  the  mythic  tinge 
which  pervades  it.* 

*  We  have  also,  as  we  have  seen,  Dioddrus,  Justin,  and  the  Lives  of 
Plutarch  and  Nepos ;  but  they  drew  from  Herodotus,  or  authorities 
posterior  to  him. 


THE 


HISTORY   OF   GREECE 


PART   II. 

DEMOCRATIC    PERIOD 


CHAPTER    I* 

STATE  OF  GREECE.  REVOLT  OF  THE  MESSENIANS. WAR  OF 

ATHENS  WITH  jEGINA  AND  CORINTH. BATTLES  OF  TANAGRA 

AND    CENOPHYTA.  — ■  ATHENIAN    EXPEDITION    TO    EGYPT. 

BATTLE  OF  CORONEIA. CONQUEST  OF  SAMOS.  POWER  OF 

THE  ATHENIANS.  CHARACTER  OF    PERICLES. 

The  portion  of  Grecian  history  which  we  now  enter  on 
will  differ  from  the  preceding  in  many  points.  It  will  pre- 
sent Greece  in  a  state  of  intestine  commotion,  turning  her 
forces  against  herself;  and  the  events  transmitted  by  the 
pens  of  contemporaries  will  exhibit  the  perfect  lineaments 
of  truth. f  Not  only  Greece  in  general,  but  every  single 
state  and  town,  (Sparta  excepted,)  will  be  divided  into  two 
opposite  and  hostile  factions  J —  the  aristocratic,  or,  in  the 

*  Thuc.  i.  100—117.     Plut.  Cimon  and  Pericles. 

t  How  few  of  the  events  of  even  the  Persian  wars  can  be  regarded 
as  strictly  true  ! 

X  Hence,  when  any  change  of  policy  takes  place  in  any  state  or  town, 
we  are  to  infer  at  once  that  the  party  opposed  to  the  one  previously  in 
power  had  gotten  the  upper  hand.  We  request  the  reader  to  keep  this 
constantly  in  mind. 

T 


154  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

majority  of  cases,  oligarchic,  and  the  democratic ;  and  the 
foreground  of  the  piece  will,  during  the  greater  part  of  the 
period,  be  occupied  by  the  brilliant  democracy  of  Athens,  to 
be  succeeded  after  an  interval  by  that  of  Thebes.  Hence  we 
denominate  this  the  Democratic  Period  of  Grecian  history. 

Athens  was  at  this  time,  like  the  other  states,  divided  into 
two  parties.  At  the  head  of  the  aristocracy  stood  Cimon, 
the  son  of  the  victor  at  Marathon ;  Pericles,  son  of  him 
who  prosecuted  Miltiades  and  conquered  at  Mycale,  was 
the  leader  of  the  democracy.  Cimon,  who  had  recovered 
his  estates  in  the  Chersonese,  and  had  had  a  large  share  of 
the  plunder  of  the  war,  was  extremely  rich  ;  and  he  em- 
ployed his  wealth  so  as  to  keep  up  and  extend  his  influence 
in  the  state.  He  built  at  his  own  expense  the  south  wall 
of  the  Acropolis,  and  commenced  those  which  were  to  con- 
nect the  city  with  her  ports.  He  laid  out  and  planted  the 
garden  named  the  Academy,  and  planted  the  market  with 
plane-trees.  The  citizens  were  all  at  liberty  to  walk  and 
gather  fruit  in  his  gardens  and  grounds  near  the  town. 
As  he  went  about,  followed  by  his  well-dressed  slaves,  if  he 
met  an  elderly  citizen  badly  clad,  he  made  one  of  them  take 
off  his  cloak  and  give  it  to  him,  and  he  lent  or  gave  money 
to  any  whom  he  knew  to  be  in  need.  His  rival,  inferior  in 
wealth,  trod  a  different  path  to  popularity. 

Cimon  and  his  party  were  anxious  to  keep  up  the  friendly 
union  with  Sparta  which  had  subsisted  in  old  times.  But 
the  condition  of  Athens  was  now  so  much  altered  that  har- 
mony was  not  to  be  maintained,  and  an  occasion  of  enmity 
soon  presented  itself. 

The  people  of  the  Isle  of  Thasos  conceived  that  they  had 
a  right  to  the  ports  and  gold-mines  on  the  opposite  coast 
of  Thrace,  of  which  the  Athenians  had  taken  possession, 
as  they  had  been  originally  their  property.  But  might  was 
right,  now  as  ever,  in  the  councils  of  Athens ;  and  Cimon 
appeared  (Ol.  78,  4)  with  a  fleet  to  end  their  murmurs  and 
make  them  pay  their  tribute.  He  defeated  them  at  sea, 
landed,  and  ravaged  the  island,  and  laid  siege  to  the  town. 


REVOLT    OF    THE    MESSENIANS.  155 

After  holding  out  three  years,  the  Thasians  submitted,  pulled 
down  their  walls,  gave  up  their  ships,  paid  a  large  sum  of 
money,  and  resigned  all  claim  to  the  ports  and  mines  of 
Thrace,  whither  the  Athenians  sent  ten  thousand  colonists 
from  their  own  and  the  allied  states,  and  settled  them  at  a 
place  called  the  Nine  Roads,  (Ewea  63ol})  afterwards  Am- 
phipolis.  But  shortly  after,  these  colonists,  engaging  in 
war  with  the  Edonians,  and  following  them  up  the  country, 
were  nearly  all  cut  to  pieces  by  the  Thracian  tribes. 

The  Thasians  in  their  distress  had  implored  the  Lacedae- 
monians to  aid  them  by  invading  Attica,  and  they  were  on 
the  point  of  secretly  sending  an  army  thither,  when  (OI. 
79,  1)  a  tremendous  earthquake  occurred,  which  destroyed 
the  whole  city  of  Sparta  except  five  houses,  and  a  great 
number  of  the  inhabitants.  The  Messenians,  who  had  been 
reduced  to  Helotism,  seized  the  opportunity  for  vengeance 
and  revolt ;  they  were  joined  by  a  part  of  the  other  Helots, 
and  by  the  Thuriate  and  .JSthaean  Perioecians,  and  Ithome 
became  once  more  their  stronghold.  The  Spartans  in  their 
need  called  on  their  Peloponnesian  allies  for  aid,  which  was 
readily  given ;  but  their  united  forces  not  being  able  to  re- 
duce Ithome,  the  Athenians  were  applied  to  as  being  skilled 
in  sieges.  The  leaders  of  the  anti-Laconic  party  at  Athens 
were  for  refusing  aid,  but  Cimon's  influence  prevailed,  and 
he  himself  appeared  with  an  Athenian  force  at  the  foot  of 
Ithome.  An  assault  was  tried  without  effect,  and  the  sys- 
tem of  blockade  was  resorted  to  ;  but  the  Lacedaemonians, 
jealous  or  suspicious  of  their  Athenian  allies,  under  pretext 
of  themselves  and  their  other  friends  being  quite  sufficient 
for  the  blockade,  declined  their  further  services.  (Ol.  79,  4.) 
The  Athenians  retired  in  indignation.  Cimon's  opponents 
now  succeeded  in  having  him  ostracised  ;  and  notwithstand- 
ing their  rnedism,  an  alliance  was  formed  with  the  Argives, 
the  hereditary  foes  of  Sparta,  and  also  with  the  Thessalians. 
The  Megarians,  soon  after,  offended  with  the  Lacedaemonians, 
who  allowed  the  Corinthians  to  harass  them,  joined  the 
Athenians,  and   put  into   their  hands  their  port  of  Nisaea, 


156  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

(which  the  Athenians  united  by  long  walls  to  the  city  of 
Megara,)  and  that  of  Peg®  on  the  Corinthian  Gulf. 

The  Messenians,  having  sustained  a  blockade  often  years, 
at  length  (Ol.  81,  2)  capitulated,  on  condition  of  quitting 
Peloponnesus  forever,  with  their  wives  and  families.  The 
Athenians,  who  had  lately  taken  Naupactus  from  the  Ozolian 
Locrians,  gave  it  to  these  exiles ;  and  under  Athenian  pro- 
tection they  dwelt  there,  till  fortune  once  more  restored  them 
to  their  ancient  country. 

The  alliance  with  Megara  brought  on  a  war  with  Corinth 
and  her  allies.  Some  Athenian  troops  which  landed  at  Ha- 
liae  on  the  Acte  were  defeated  by  the  Corinthians  and 
Epidaurians ;  but  the  Athenians  gained  a  naval  victory  oft 
Cecruphaleia  in  the  Saronic  Gulf.  A  great. naval  action  was 
then  fought  between  the  Athenians  and  the  iEginetes,  and 
their  allies  on  both  sides,  in  which  the  latter  were  defeated 
with  the  loss  of  seventy  triremes.  The  Athenians  landed 
and  laid  siege  to  the  town  ;  three  hundred  hoplites  passed 
over  from  Corinth  and  Epidaurus  to  its  relief,  and  the  Co- 
rinthians and  their  allies  invaded  Megaris,  thinking  that  as 
one  part  of  the  Athenian  forces  was  at  iEgina,  and  another 
at  a  still  greater  distance,  they  either  could  not  relieve  it, 
or  to  do  so  must  leave  ^Egina.  But  the  heroism  which  now 
animated  the  Athenians  extended  to  all  ages.  Myronides, 
an  able  general,  set  out  for  Megara  at  the  head  of  an  army 
of  old  men  and  boys.  An  indecisive  battle  was  fought ;  but 
as  the  Corinthians  retired  after  it,  the  Athenians  raised  a 
trophy.  The  Corinthians,  being  reproached  for  their  cow- 
ardice at  home,  returned  after  twelve  days,  and  began  to 
erect  a  trophy  ;  the  Athenians  came  out  of  Megara,  and  killed 
those  who  were  raising  it,  and  defeated  a  party  who  came 
to  their  aid.  As  they  were  flying,  a  part  of  them  inadver- 
tently got  into  a  piece  of  ground  enclosed  by  a  deep  ditch, 
with  but  one  entrance.  The  Athenians,  coming  up,  placed 
their  hoplites  at  this  entrance,  and  then,  surrounding  the 
place  with  slingers,  stoned  to  death  every  one  who  was  in  it. 

The  revolt  of  the  Messenians   seems   to   have   kept   the 


BATTLE    OF    TANAGRA.  157 

Lacedaemonians  from  sharing  in  the  war  which  was  going  on  ; 
but  when  at  this  time  (Ol.  80,  4)  the  Phocians  attacked 
their  little  parent-state  of  Doris,  filial  piety  led  them  to  her 
aid.  With  fifteen  hundred  hoplites  of  their  own,  and  ten 
thousand  of  their  allies,  they  appeared  in  Phocis,  and  reduced 
its  people  to  submission.  The  presence  of  this  army  in 
Bceotia  inspired  the  Thebans  with  the  idea  of  recovering  the 
supremacy  which  they  had  lost;  and  the  Lacedaemonians, 
glad  to  form  a  counterpoise  to  the  Athenians,  made  an  alli- 
ance with  them  The  Athenian  oligarchs  also  sent  secretly 
to  secure  the  cooperation  of  the  Peloponnesian  army ;  but 
the  democratic  party,  which  now  governed,  were  on  their 
side  vigilant  and  prepared.  The  Peloponnesians  there- 
fore could  not  leave  Bceotia,  for  the  Athenians  guarded 
Mount  Geraneia  at  the  Isthmus,  and  their  fleet  at  Pegae 
commanded  the  Corinthian  Gulf.  An  army  also  was  col- 
lected to  attack,  and  if  possible  destroy,  the  Peloponnesians. 
The  Athenians  gave  all  their  disposable  forces ;  and,  with 
their  allies  and  one  thousand  Argives,  the  army  numbered 
fourteen  thousand  hoplites;  and  a  body  of  cavalry  came 
from  Thessaly.  A  battle  was  fought  at  Tanagra,  in  which, 
owing  chiefly  to  the  defection  of  the  Thessalians,  the  victory 
remained  with  the  Lacedaemonians,  who  then  entered  Meg- 
aris,  and,  as  was  the  usage  of  war,  cut  down  all  the  fruit- 
trees. 

The  battle  of  Tanagra  was  fought  in  November  ;  and  sixty- 
two  days  after,  Myronides,  the  Athenian  general,  engaged 
the  Boeotians  at  a  place  named  (Enophyta,  in  the  plain  of 
Tanagra,  and  completely  routed  them.  The  walls  of  Tana- 
gra were  thrown  down,  the  Athenian  interest  gained  strength 
throughout  Bceotia,  and  the  power  of  Thebes  was  lowered.* 
The  same  took  place  in  Phocis,  and  the  Opuntian   Locrians 

*  Aristotle  (Pol.  v.  2)  says  that  after  this  battle  the  democracy  at 
Thebes  was  overturned  (by  the  aristocrats)  in  consequence  of  its  bad 
management.  That  event  would  rather  seem  to  have  taken  place  after 
the  battle  of  Coroneia,  and  the  democracy  to  have  been  established  after 
this  of  (Enophyta. 

14 


158  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

were  forced  to  give  one  hundred  of  their  principal  men  as 
hostages  to  the  Athenians.  Thus  this  glorious  campaign  of 
Myronides  rendered  the  Athenian  power  supreme  without 
the  Isthmus,  and  in  this  same  year  (Ol.  81,  1)  the  iEginetes 
agreed  to  demolish  their  walls,  surrender  their  ships,  and  pay 
tribute.  Further  to  confirm  the  Athenian  power,  their  Long 
Walls,  the  one  extending  to  Piraeeus,  the  other  to  Phaleron, 
were  completed,  and  Athens  had  thus  little  to  fear  from  her 
foes.  A  fleet  and  troops  under  Tolmidas  sailed  round  Pe- 
loponnesus, burned  Gythion,  the  naval  arsenal  of  the  Lace- 
daemonians, took  the  Corinthian  town  of  Chalcis  in  iEtolia, 
and  landing  in  Sicyon,  defeated  those  who  came  to  oppose 
them. 

While  victory  was  thus  crowning  the  arms  of  Athens,  Peri- 
cles provided  for  her  indigent  citizens  by  founding  numerous 
colonies.  He  sent  five  hundred  cleruchs,  (x^rjoou/o/,)  or 
colonists,  to  Naxos,  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  Andros,  one 
thousand  to  the  Chersonese,  an  equal  number  to  the  coun- 
try of  the  Bisaltes  in  Thrace,  and  another  large  body  to 
Eubcea.*  These  colonies  resembled  those  of  the  Romans  f 
rather  than  those  of  the  early  Greeks ;  they  served  as  gar- 
risons in  the  places  where  they  were  settled ;  the  colonists 
were  still  Athenian  citizens,  and  might  even  reside  at 
Athens,  letting  their  lands  to  the  original  owners. f  That 
the  colonies  served  greatly  to  maintain  the  power  of  Athens 
there  can  be  little  doubt;  it  is  equally  clear  that,  as  the 
instances  of  Naxos  and  Andros  show,  the  rules  of  justice 
were  little  heeded  in  the  acquisition  of  the  territories  which 
they  occupied. 

It  has  been  already  hinted  that  a  part  of  the  Athenian 
forces  were  all  this,  time  away  from  home  :  they  were  in  fact 
in  Egypt!  A  Libyan  prince  named  Inaros  had  (01.  80,  1) 
made  himself  master  of  a  part  of  Lower  Egypt,  where  the 
Persian  yoke   was  felt  oppressive.     To  strengthen  himself, 

*  Plut.  Per.  ii.     Diod.  xi.  88.  t  Hist,  of  Rome,  p.  68. 

t  In  this  lay  the  difference  between  the  original  Greek  colony  {an<u- 
xia)  and  the  Athenian  clerucky,  (xh^ovxiu-) 


ATHENIAN    EXPEDITION    TO    EGYPT.  159 

he  invited  the  Athenians  who  were  at  Cyprus,  with  two 
hundred  triremes  of  their  own  and  their  allies,  to  come  to 
his  aid.  They  accepted  the  invitation,  and  sailing  up  the 
Nile,  made  themselves  masters  of  two  thirds  of  the  city  of 
Memphis ;  the  other  third  was  still  held  by  the  Persians  and 
their  Egyptian  friends.  King  Artaxerxes,  when  he  heard 
of  this  act  of  the  Athenians,  sent  money  to  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians to  engage  them  to  make  an  irruption  into  Attica ;  but 
they  had  enough  on  their  hands  already,  and  could  not  stir. 
He  then  sent  an  army  to  Egypt,  which  defeated  the  Egyptians 
and  their  Greek  allies.  These  last  were  driven  out  of  Mem- 
phis, and,  retiring  to  an  island  of  the  Nile,  held  out  there 
for  a  year  and  a  half;  till  the  Persians,  having  turned  off  the 
water,  got  over  to  the  island  to  attack  them.  A  few  escaped, 
and  made  their  way  to  Cyrene ;  the  rest  perished ;  Inaros 
was  taken  and  crucified.  Fifty  triremes,  which  were  coming 
as  a  relief,  having  entered  the  Mendesian  branch  of  the  Nile, 
and  being  assailed  by  land  and  by  water,  were  nearly  all 
destroyed.  (Ol.  81,  2.)  Thus  terminated  this  ill-fated  ex- 
pedition. 

The  great  efforts  which  the  Athenians  had  made  having 
exhausted  them  in  some  measure,  they  felt  desirous  of  re- 
pose. Immediately  after  the  defeat  of  Tanagra,  the  people, 
fearing  an  invasion  of  Attica,  resolved  to  bring  back  Cimon, 
and  Pericles  himself  proposed  the  decree  for  his  recall.  He 
returned  to  his  native  city,  and  through  him,  some  time  after, 
a  truce  for  five  years  was  made  with  the  Lacedaemonians. 
(Ol.  82,  3.)  About  the  same  time,  a  peace  for  thirty  years 
was  concluded  between  Lacedaemon  and  Argos. 

Meantime  the  war  against  the  Barbarians  was  continued, 
and  a  fleet  of  two  hundred  Athenian  triremes  put  to  sea  un- 
der the  command  of  Cimon,  who  sailed  to  Cyprus,  where  he 
laid  siege  to  the  town  of  Cition  ;  at  the  same  time  he  de- 
spatched sixty  triremes  to  Egypt,  to  the  aid  of  Amyrtaeus, 
who  was  holding  out  against  the  Persians  in  the  marshes 
of  the  Delta.  But  Cimon  died  (Ol.  82,  4)  before  Cition, 
and  a  scarcity  of  provisions  being  felt,  the  siege  was  given 


160  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

up,  and  the  fleet,  joined  by  the  triremes  from  Egypt,  sailed 
homewards.  As  the  Athenians  were  passing  by  Salamis,  on 
that  coast,  they  met  a  fleet  of  Phoenician  and  Cilician  ships, 
which  they  engaged  and  defeated  by  land  and  sea.* 

In  this  year  also,  on  occasion  of  a  dispute  between  the 
Delphians  and  the  Phocians  as  to  which  should  have  the 
care  of  the  temple  and  its  treasures,  the  Lacedaemonians  sent 
an  army,  and  gave  them  to  the  former ;  but  as  soon  as  they 
were  gone,  Pericles  led  thither  an  Athenian  army,  and  put 
the  Phocians  in  possession.  Of  this  the  Lacedaemonians 
took  no  notice.  The  right  of  Promanty,  or  first  consulting 
the  oracle,  which  had  been  given  to  Sparta  by  the  Delphians, 
was  now  assigned  to  Athens  by  the  Phocians ;  and  this 
honor  was  probably  the  cause  of  the  interference  of  both 
states. 

As  the  Athenians  had  given  the  upper  hand  to  the  demo- 
cratic party  in  Boeotia,  there  was  of  course  a  large  number 
of  the  opposite  party  in  exile.  These  had  made  themselves 
masters  of  Orchomenus,  Chaeroneia,  and  some  other  places, 
and  if  not  checked  in  time,  might  greatly  endanger  the  Athe- 
nian influence.  Tolmidas,  therefore,  led  an  army  and  took 
and  garrisoned  Chaeroneia ;  but  as  he  was  returning,  he  was 
attacked  at  Coroneia  by  the  exiles  from  Orchomenus,  joined 
by  those  of  Euboea  and  their  other  friends.  Tolmidas  fell, 
and  his  troops  were  all  slain  or  made  prisoners.  (Ol.  83,  2.) 
The  Athenians,  fearing  a  general  war,  agreed  to  a  treaty, 
by  which,  on  their  prisoners  being  restored,  they  evacuated 
Boeotia.  The  exiles  returned  to  their  several  towns,  and 
things  were  placed  on  their  old  footing.  So  transient  is  this 
species  of  dominion  ! 

Eubcea  was  now  (Ol.  83,  3)  in  revolt ;  and  while  Pericles 
was  at  the  head  of  an  army  reducing  it,  the  party  in  Meg* 
ara  adverse  to  Athens  rose  and  massacred  all  the  Athenian 
garrisons  except  that  of  Nisaea.    Corinthians,  Sicyonians,  and 

*  The  celebrated  Peace  of  Cimon,  as  it  is  called,  is  said  to  have  been 
made  at  this  time.     Diod.  xii.  4. 


CONQUEST    OF    SAMOS.  1G1 

Epidaurians  came  to  their  aid ;  and  the  Peloponnesians, 
led  by  one  of  the  Spartan  kings,  entered  and  wasted  the 
plain  of  Eleusis.  Pericles  led  back  his  array  from  Eubcea, 
but  the  enemy  was  gone;  he  then  returned  and  reduced 
that  island,  and  having  expelled  the  people  of  Hestiaea,  gave 
their  lands  to  Athenian  colonists;  and  the  Athenians,  being 
unwilling  to  risk  the  chance  of  war  with  the  Dorian  confed- 
eracy, gladly  formed  (OI.  83,  4)  a  truce  for  thirty  years, 
surrendering  Nisgea  and  Pegae,  and  withdrawing  a  garrison 
which  they  had  in  Trcezen,  and  ceasing  to  interfere  in 
Achaia.  The  real  weakness  of  Athens  as  a  land  power  is 
thus  apparent ;  she  had  grasped  at  empire  beyond  her 
strength,  and  her  hold  on  it  was  therefore  a  feeble  one. 

About  five  years  after  this  truce,  (Ol.  84,  4,)  the  Mile- 
sians and  Samians  went  to  war  for  Priene,  and  the  former, 
having  the  worst  of  it,  called  on  the  Athenians  to  inter- 
fere. Forty  Athenian  triremes  appeared  at  Samos,  a  democ- 
racy was  established,  fifty  men  and  as  many  youths  of 
the  aristocratic  party  were  taken  as  hostages  and  placed  in 
Lemnos,  and  a  garrison  left  in  Samos.  But  the  Samians, 
who  had  fled,  having  concerted  measures  with  their  friends 
in  the  island,  and  being  aided  by  Pissuthnes,  the  Persian 
governor  of  Sardes,  passed  over  to  Samos  in  the  night,  and 
having. overcome  the  popular  party  and  contrived  to  steal 
their  hostages  away  from  Lemnos,  delivered  the  Athenian 
garrison  up  to  Pissuthnes,  and  revolted.  The  Byzantines 
joined  in  the  revolt,  and  they  prepared  to  attack  the  Mile- 
sians. 

As  soon  as  the  news  reached  Athens,  sixty  triremes  put 
to  sea,  sixteen  of  which  went,  some  to  Caria  to  oppose  the 
Phoenicians,  others  to  summon  aid  from  Chios  and  Lesbos. 
Pericles  *  sailed  to  Samos  with  the  remaining  forty-four,  and 
engaging  a  Samian  fleet  of  seventy  triremes,  defeated  it. 
Being  joined   by    forty   vessels   from   Athens,  and  twenty- 

*  The  poet  Sophocles  was  joined  in  command  with  Pericles  on  this 
occasion. 

14*  u 


162  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

five  from  Chios  and  Lesbos,  he  landed  his  troops  and  in- 
vested the  town  of  Samos  by  land  and  by  sea.  Soon  after, 
hearing  that  the  Phoenician  fleet  was  approaching,  he  sailed 
with  sixty  triremes  to  the  coast  of  Caria;  and  the  Samians,  ta- 
king advantage  of  his  absence,  ventured  out,  and  defeating  the 
fleet  that  remained,  became  masters  of  the  sea  for  fourteen 
days,  and  brought  in  such  supplies  as  they  required.  But 
Pericles  returned  ;  sixty  triremes  more  came  from  Athens, 
and  thirty  from  Chios  and  Lesbos.  The  Samians,  after  having 
ventured  a  slight  action  at  sea,  were  again  shut  up,  and  after 
a  blockade  of  eight  months,  they  yielded  on  the  usual  condi- 
tions of  demolishing  their  walls,  giving  hostages,  surrender- 
ing their  ships,  and  paying  the  expenses  of  the  war.  The 
Byzantines  also  were  glad  to  make  their  peace.  (Ol.  85,  1.) 

Here  let  us  pause,  and  survey  the  power  of  Athens  abroad, 
and  her  condition  at  home  at  this  period. 

The  comic  poet  Aristophanes  *  gives  1000  as  the  number 
of  the  places  subject  to  Athens.  This  is  doubtless  an  ex- 
aggeration, but  still  it  proves  the  number  to  have  been  very 
great.  She  ruled  over  JEginu.,  Euboea,  all  the  Cyclades 
and  Sporades,  except  Melos  and  Thera,  the  isles  and  towns 
on  the  coast  of  Thrace  and  along  the  Propontis  and  Bos- 
porus, Sinope,  and  some  other  towns  in  the  Pontus,  where 
she  had  succeeded  to  the  power  of  the  Milesians,  nearly  all 
the  towns  and  islands  of  the  west  coast  of  Asia  Minor, 
and  some  towns  of  Lycia.  She  had  Naupactus  in  the  Co- 
rinthian Gulf;  and  the  isles  of  Cephallenia  and  Zacynthus 
in  the  Ionian  Sea,  and  Thurii  on  the  coast  of  Italy  were  at 
least  in  alliance  with  her.  The  democratic  party  in  every 
state  of  Greece  looked  up  to  her  as  their  protector. 

The  condition  of  these  subject  states  was  different.  Chios 
and  Lesbos,  which  had  never  agreed  to  give  money  instead 
of  men,  were  independent,  and  regarded  as  allies.  That 
of  Naxos  and  Eubcea  was  the  worst,  as  the  lands  were  in 
the  hands  of  Athenian  colonists,  and  the  people  were  nearly 

*  Wasps,  707  et  seq. 


POWER    OF    THE    ATHENIANS.  163 

in  a  state  of  Pericecism.  The  other  towns  and  islands  an- 
nually paid  their  share  of  the  contribution,  which  the  Athe- 
nians had  now  arbitrarily  raised  to  six  hundred  talents,*  and 
had  removed  the  treasury  to  Athens.  Sixty  Athenian  tri- 
remes, in  which  the  citizens  served  in  turns,  were  constantly 
at  sea,  ready  to  fall  on  any  town  that  wavered  in  its  obedi- 
ence. Resistance  was  hopeless;  the  Athenian  power  was, 
as  Thucydides  truly  terms  it,  a  tyranny,  and  was  exercised 
without  mercy.  The  people  of  these  subject  towns  were 
obliged  to  bring  not  merely  their  public  but  their  private 
causes  to  be  tried  in  the  Athenian  tribunals,  as  this  brought 
money  into  the  purses  of  the  now  sovereign  people,  in  the 
form  of  rent  for  their  houses,  hire  for  their  slaves,  and  pay  to 
themselves  as  jurors ;  and  the  decision  of  the  causes  was 
therefore  delayed  as  much  as  possible.  In  a  word,  a  more 
unjustly  oppressive  dominion  has  never  been  seen  than  this 
of  Athens  over  her  confederates :  but  history  testifies,  that 
a  sovereign  democracy  may  be  one  of  the  greatest  and  most 
capricious  of  tyrants,  or  rather,  as  a  general  principle,  that 
uncontrolled  power  is  tyranny. 

The  constitution  of  Solon,  even  when  altered  by  Cleisthe- 
nes,  was,  as  it  is  called,  in  essence  aristocratic :  Aristeides 
had  rendered  it  somewhat  more  democratic.  But  the  great 
changes  were  made  at  the  present  time  by  Pericles,  who,  to 
gratify  his  own  ambition,  introduced  the  wild,  unbridled  de- 
mocracy which  eventually  conducted  the  state  to  its  ruin. 

This  extraordinary,  nay,  great  man,  was  the  son  of  Xan- 

*  If  the  war  with  Persia  ended  in,  as  it  did,  Ol.  82,4,  (whether  hy  the 
peace  of  Cimon  or  not,  is  amatter  of  no  importance,)  what  further  right 
had  the  Athenians  to  collect  contributions,  much  less  to  raise  their 
amount  ?  Their  injustice  and  tyranny  in  so  doing  is  only  paralleled  by 
the  impudence  of  Pericles,  who  told  them  that  they  were  not  bound 
to  give  the  allies  any  account  of  the  money,  as  they  defended  them 
against  the  Barbarians,  and  it  was  no  business  of  theirs  if  the  Athenians 
chose  to  spend  it  in  embellishing  their  city.  (Plut.  Per.  12.)  Not  a  single 
talent,  however,  was  spent  in  war  against  the  Barbarians  after  the  death 
of  Cimon;  the  only  value  the  allies  got  for  their  money  was,  that  the 
Athenians  for  their  own  sake  kept  down  piracy  in  the  jEgean,  and  they 
shared  in  the  advantage  of  this  state  of  security. 


164  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

thippus,  the  victor  at  Mycale :  his  mother,  Agariste,  was  the 
niece  of  Cleisthenes.  The  lessons  of  the  philosophers,  Damon, 
Zenon,  and  Anaxagoras,  freed  his  mind  from  prejudice  and 
superstition,  gave  him  political  science,  and  taught  him  the 
art  of  making  it  avail  in  practice.  When  he  commenced 
his  political  career,  the  influence  of  the  aristocratic  party, 
headed  by  Cimon,  was  strong;  and  he  saw  that  his  only 
chance  of  becoming  the  head  of  the  state  was  by  raising  the 
Demos,  whom  he  trusted  he  could  sway  at  his  will.  He 
first  sought  to  diminish  the  authority  of  the  court  of  Arei- 
opagus,  which,  being  composed  of  those  who  had  served  the 
office  of  archon  with  repute,  gave  a  great  moral  influence 
in  the  state  to  the  aristocracy,  to  which  its  members  be- 
longed.* This  he  effected  through  his  friend  Ephialtes,  for 
it  was  his  policy  to  appear  as  little  as  possible  himself  in 
matters  of  this  kind.t 

Having  succeeded  in  ostracising  Cimon,  he  pursued  his 
plans,  though  still  openly  and  secretly  opposed  by  the  aris- 
tocratic party,  at  whose  instigation  perhaps  it  was  that 
Ephialtes  was  murdered  at  this  time  by  a  man  ofTanagra.  J 
The  defeat  at  Tanagra  was  an  advantage  to  this  party,  as  it 
obliged  Pericles  himself  to  propose  the  recall  of  Cimon.  On 
the  death  of  Cimon,  his  kinsman  Thucydides,  son  of  Milesias, 
became  its  leader;  but  he  was  far  inferior  to  Pericles  in 
talent,  and  when  an  attempt  was  made  to  get  Pericles  ostra- 

*  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  the  poet  iEschylus  produced  his  mag- 
nificent trilogy  the  Oresteia,  which  has  fortunately  been  preserved. 
His  object  was  to  uphold  the  authority  of  the  court  of  Areiopagus  by 
investing,  in  the  Eumenides,  its  mythic  origin  with  all  the  awful  con- 
ceptions of  his  powerful  genius.  It  has  been  thought  with  great  prob- 
ability that  the  persecution  he  underwent  in  consequence  of  it  from 
Pericles'  party  was  the  cause  of  his  returning  to  Sicily,  where  he  died. 
(See  Welcker,  JEschyl.   Trilogie,  p.  521.) 

t  Plut.  Per.  9.  Arist.  Pol.  ii.  8.  Ephialtes  is  always  joined  with 
Aristeides  by  the  orators  as  a  model  of  political  integrity.  The  present 
measure,  beyond  doubt  an  injurious  one,  furnishes  one  among  many 
proofs  of  how  little  connection  there  may  be  between  personal  worth 
and  political  wisdom,  and  may  teach  us  not  to  regard  a  measure  as 
good  merely  because  it  is  advocated  by  a  good  man. 

X  Aristotle  in  Plut.  Per.  10. 


CHARACTER    OF    PERICLES.  165 

cised,  the  latter  put  forth  his  strength  and  ostracised  his 
opponent.  (OI.  84,  1.)  The  aristocratic  party  was  now  com- 
pletely hroken  up,  and  Pericles  remained  monarch  of  Athens 
for  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

It  was  necessary  for  the  views  of  Pericles  that  the  Demos, 
through  whom  and  over  whom  he  ruled,  should  be  kept  in 
occupation,  in  comfort,  and  in  good  temper.  Colonies  there- 
fore were  founded,  which  took  off  its  superfluous  members, 
and  served  as  garrisons  at  a  distance :  constant  service 
aboard  the  fleet  gave  employment  and  pay  to  a  large  num- 
ber of  citizens.  The  contributions  of  the  allies  were,  under 
the  direction  of  the  great  Pheidias,  spent  in  erecting  stately 
temples  and  other  works  of  art  at  Athens,  which  gave  em- 
ployment to  all  kinds  of  tradesmen,  mechanics,  and  labor- 
ers. Sums  of  money  (iu  &£QiQix&)  were  distributed  to  the 
people  to  pay  for  their  seats  in  the  theatres,  in  which  at 
solemn  festivals  the  dramas  of  ^schylus,  Sophocles,  and 
other  poets  were  represented ;  and  pay  was  now  given  to 
those  who  sat  as  jurors  in  the  different  courts  of  justice;* 
which  bad  precedent  afterwards  led  to  another  evil,  when  on 
the  proposal  of  Callistratus  money  was  given  to  those  who 
attended  the  assembly. t 

Under  Pericles  the  Athenians  were  the  most  powerful, 
the  most  cultivated,  and  the  most  polished  people  In  Greece  ; 
and  Athens  was  by  far  the  most  splendid  city,  and  the  re- 
sort of  all  who  admired  or  cultivated  the  arts.  Pericles  him- 
self towered  high  above  all  the  men  of  his  time  :  in  him 
eloquence  was  first  seen  to  display  her  powers  :  unlike  The- 
mistocles,  his  hands  were  clean  ;  a  demagogue  |  in  the  ori- 
ginal sense  of  the  word,  he  led  the  people,  who  looked  on 
him  with  awe,  and  whom  he  never,  like  his  unworthy  suc- 
cessors, flattered  to  their  evil ;  a  general,  as  well  as  a  states- 

*  Plut.  Per.  9.  Arist.  Pol.  ii.  8.  It  was  at  first  an  obole.  Cleon 
raised  it  to  three  oboles. 

f  This  also  was  an  obole.  It  is  uncertain  when  Callistratus  lived, 
but  it  was  probably  not  long  after  this  time. 

t  As  naidaynryoQ  was  a  tutor  or  guide  of  children,  (.rai^tc,)  so'dtjua- 
ycoyos  was  originally  a  tutor  or  guide  of  the  people,  (di-uog.) 


166  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

man,  he  was  brave  as  any,  but  his  valor  was  always  guided 
by  prudence. 

Not  to  admire  such  a  man  were  impossible ;  but  admira- 
tion must  not  close  our  eyes  to  his  faults.  Ambition,  cer- 
tainly a  noble  one,  was  his  vice ;  he  would  have  Athens 
the  first  state  of  Greece,  and  be  himself  her  sovereign.  To 
effect  this  purpose,  he  little  cared  what  mischief  he  intro- 
duced :  for  must  he  not  have  observed  the  evils  of  mob-rule 
in  Megara?  and  must  not  a  man  of  his  intellectual  powers 
have  discerned,  that  when  the  influence  of  wealth  and  birth 
was  made  nought  in  the  constitution,  when  by  giving  pay 
to  jurors  the  seats  of  justice  would  be  almost  exclusively 
occupied  by  the  poorer  citizens,  who  would  regard  them  as 
the  means  of  life,  and  when  attractions  were  held  out  to 
draw  them  to  the  assembly,  — the  power  of  the  state  would 
eventually  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  ignorant,  venal,  weak, 
tyrannic,  superstitious  mob  1  *  Might  he  not  easily  have 
seen  that  though  he  (and  not  always  without  difficulty)  could 
control  the  many-headed  monster,  and  lead  it  to  good,  his 
successors  might  not  have  the  inclination,  and  could  hardly 
have  the  power,  to  do  the  same  ?  The  claim  of  Pericles  to 
the  fame  of  pure  patriotism  we  therefore  regard  as  one  which 
may  be  easily  contested  :  his  splendid  talents  must  ever  com- 
mand our  respect  and  admiration. 


CHAPTER    Il.t 

WAR  BETWEEN  THE  CORINTHIANS  AND  CORCYRjEANS. SIEGE 

OF    POTIDjEA.  ORIGIN    OF    THE    PELOPONNESIAN    WAR. 

Having  seen  Athens  at  the  climax  of  her  power,  we  have 
now  to  view  her  gallant  efforts  to  retain  and  extend  it. 

*  See  Aristotle,  Pol.  iv.  5  ;  Cicero,  Flaccus,  7. 

\  Thuc.  i.  24  —  88,  139  to  the  end.    Plut.  Pericles.    Diodor.  xii.  30  — 
41  :  this  compiler  followed  Thucydides  and  Ephorus. 


WAR  BETWEEN  THE  CORINTHIANS  AND  CORCYRiEANS.    167 

The  Island  of  Corcyra  had  been  colonised  from  Corinth. 
Owing  to  its  situation,  and  emulous,  as  it  were,  of  the  naval 
fame  of  the  Phaeacians  of  Homer,  whose  abode  it  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been,  the  Corcyraeans  became  wealthy  and 
powerful  by  trade  and  navigation.  They  founded  a  colony 
named  Epidamnus  on  the  coast  of  Illyria,  which  in  course 
of  time  grew  large  and  populous ;  but  it  escaped  not  the 
curse  of  Greece,  —  internal  dissension.  The  Demos  ex- 
pelled the  Optimates,  who,  joining  the  neighboring  Barba- 
rians, harassed  and  plundered  them  by  land  and  by  sea. 
They  sent  to  implore  the  mother  state  to  mediate  between 
them  and  the  exiles ;  but  the  Corcyraeans  refused  to  interfere. 
As,  according  to  custom,  the  leader  (tigxTf87^*)  of  the  col- 
ony had  been  fetched  from  Corinth,  and  many  Corinthians 
had  been  among  the  original  settlers,  they  sent  envoys  to 
Delphi,  and  inquired  of  the  god  if  they  should  give  their 
city  to  the  Corinthians  as  its  founders,  and  ask  aid  of  them. 
The  god  desiring  them  to  do  so,  they  proceeded  to  Corinth. 
The  Corinthians,  who  hated  the  Corcyraeans  for  their  in- 
solence and  want  of  the  usual  filial  respect  of  colonists 
towards  them,*  accepted  the  offer,  and  sent  colonists  and  a 
garrison  to  Epidamnus.  The  Corcyraeans  were  offended,  and 
on  the  exiles  applying  to  them,  sent  orders  to  the  Epidam- 
nians  to  receive  their  exiles,  and  to  send  away  the  Corinth- 
ian garrison  and  colonists.  Meeting  with  a  refusal,  they 
sent  forty  ships  to  aid  the  exiles  and  the  Barbarians,  and 
laid  siege  to  the  town. 

When  the  Corinthians  heard  that  Epidamnus  was  besieged, 
they  collected,  with  the  aid  of  their  allies,  among  whom  were 
the  Thebans  and  the  Eleians,  a  fleet  of  seventy-five  triremes, 
and  a  force  of  three  thousand  hoplites.  The  Corcyraeans, 
hearing  of  their  warlike  preparations,  sent  ambassadors  to 
Corinth,  offering  to  leave  the  question  of  the  colony  to  the 
decision  of  any  towns  in  Peloponnesus  on  which  they  might 
agree,  or  to  that  of  the  Delphian  god.  The  Corinthians  told 
them,  first  to  raise  the  blockade  of  Epidamnus,  and  that  then 

*  See  above,  p.  29. 


168  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

they  would  treat.  The  Corcyraeans  refused,  and  the  Co- 
rinthian fleet  put  to  sea,  having  two  thousand  hoplites  on 
board.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Bay  of  Ambracia  they  en- 
countered a  Corcyraean  fleet  of  eighty  ships,  and  in  the  engage- 
ment the  Corinthians  were  defeated  with  the  loss  of  fifteen 
triremes.  On  the  same  day  Epidamnus  surrendered,  and  by 
the  terms  of  capitulation  the  foreign  settlers  were  to  be  sold, 
and  the  Corinthians  kept  as  prisoners.     (01.  86,  2.) 

The  following  year  the  Corinthians  applied  themselves 
vigorously  to  their  warlike  preparations,  building  ships  and 
collecting  seamen.  The  Corcyraeans,  growing  alarmed,  re- 
solved to  try  and  form  an  alliance  with  Athens,  and  for  that 
purpose  sent  an  embassy  thither,  (Ol.  86,  4  :)  the  Corinth- 
ians, hearing  of  it,  sent  another,  and  both  appeared  and 
spoke  in  the  assembly.  After  some  hesitation  it  was  de- 
cided to  form  an  alliance,  but  merely  a  defensive  one,  with 
the  Corcyraeans ;  for  the  advantage  of  attaching  to  their  side 
a  people  second  only  to  themselves  at  sea,  was  thought  worth 
the  risk  of  war  with  the  Peloponnesians.  A  fleet  of  ten  ships 
was  therefore  sent  to  Corcyra. 

The  Corinthians  soon  after  (Ol.  87,  1)  sent  a  fleet  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  ships  against  Corcyra,  which  took  its 
position  on  the  opposite  coast  of  Thesprotia.  The  Corcy- 
raeans put  to  sea  with  one  hundred  and  ten  ships  of  their 
own  and  the  ten  from  Athens.  At  break  of  day  the  action 
—  the  greatest  yet  fought  at  sea  among  the  Greeks  —  com- 
menced. The  Corcyraeans  were  victorious  on  the  left,  the 
Corinthians  on  the  right :  the  Athenians  did  not  share  in 
the  action,  but  kept  moving  to  and  fro  to  daunt  the  ene- 
mies by  their  presence.  The  rout,  however,  on  the  side  of 
the  Corcyraeans  soon  became  general,  and  the  Corinthians 
at  first  gave  no  quarter,  destroying  by  mistake  even  some 
of  their  own  friends.  At  length  they  collected  the  wrecks, 
and  the  bodies  of  the  slain  on  their  own  side,  and  carrying 
them  to  the  coast,  gave  them  in  charge  to  their  Barbarian 
allies,  and  then  put  again  to  sea.  The  Corcyraeans  assem- 
bled such  of  their  vessels  as  were  fit  for  action,  and  advanced 


WAR  BETWEEN  THE  CORINTHIANS  AND  CORCYR.EANS.     169 

to  engage  them.  The  Athenians  also,  though  they  had  taken 
no  active  part  in  the  previous  fight  in  defence  of  their  routed 
allies,  saw  no  reason  for  their  now  remaining  inactive,  and 
they  formed  in  the  Corcyrasan  line.  The  Pcsan,  or  hymn 
of  onset,  had  been  sung,  when,  to  the  surprise  of  their  ene- 
mies, the  Corinthian  line  was  seen  to  fall  back.  But  the 
Corinthians  had  seen,  though  from  their  position  the  Corcy- 
raeans could  not,  twenty  Athenian  triremes  approaching ;  and 
taking  them  to  be  but  a  part  of  a  larger  fleet,  and  night  being 
at  hand,  they  resolved  to  retire. 

Next  morning  the  combined  fleet  sailed  over  to  the  port 
where  the  Corinthians  were  lying,  who  instantly  got  their 
ships  out  and  prepared  for  action.  As  the  Athenian  ships 
were  fresh,  the  Corinthians  did  not  wish  to  engage,  and  they 
sent  some  persons  in  a  boat  to  reproach  them  with  breaking 
the  truce,  and  to  learn  their  intentions.  The  Athenians 
replied  that  they  were  not  breaking  the  truce,  and  that  the 
Corinthians  might  go  whithersoever  they  pleased,  except 
against  the  possessions  of  the  Corcyraeans.  The  Corinthians 
then,  having  erected  a  trophy,  sailed  home;  and  the  Corcy- 
raeans claiming  the  victory, as  the  Corinthians  had  refused  their 
challenge,  raised  a  trophy  on  their  side.  The  loss  of  the 
Corcyraeans  was  seventy  triremes  and  one  thousand  men  ;  that 
of  the  Corinthians  about  thirty  triremes.  The.  Corinthians, 
as  they  were  going  home,  made  themselves  masters  by 
artifice  of  Anactorion,  a  common  possession  of  theirs  and 
the  Corcyraeans.     The  Athenian  fleet  also  returned  home. 

The  Corinthians,  naturally  anxious  for  revenge,  now  ex- 
erted themselves  to  raise  up  enemies  to  the  Athenians,  who 
on  their  side  sought  to  thwart  their  designs.  Potidaea,  a 
town  on  the  isthmus  of  the  peninsula  of  Pallene,  was  a  Co- 
rinthian colony,  but  it  was  one  of  the  subject  allies  of 
Athens.  As,  however,  its  connection  with  the  mother  state 
was  still  very  intimate,  its  fidelity  was  dubious,  and  orders 
were  sent  out  to  the  people  to  pull  down  their  wall  on  the 
Pallene  side,  to  give  hostages,  and  to  send  away  the  magis- 
trates who  came  annually  from  Corinth.  On  the  other  hand, 
15  v 


170  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  Corinthians  and  Perdiccas  king  of  Macedonia,  who  was 
at  enmity  with  the  Athenians  because  they  aided  his  brother 
against  him,  urged  the  Potidaeans  to  revolt.  Perdiccas  also 
tried  to  induce  the  Chalcidians  and  Bottiaeans  on  the  coast 
of  Thrace  to  join  their  defection.  The  Athenians,  learning 
what  was  going  on,  lost  no  time  in  sending  thirty  triremes 
and  one  thousand  hoplites  to  the  coast  of  Macedonia. 

The  Potidaeans,  meanwhile,  sent  deputies  to  Athens,  and 
at  the  same  time  others  secretly  to  Sparta.  From  the  Athe- 
nians they  could  obtain  no  favor  :  the  Lacedaemonians 
promised,  in  case  of  their  being  attacked,  to  invade  Attica. 
Simultaneously  then  the  Potidaeans,  Chalcidians,  and  Botti- 
aeans cast  off  the  yoke  of  Athens;  and,  at  the  persuasion  of 
Perdiccas,  the  Chalcidians,  abandoning  all  their  other  towns, 
retired  to  and  fortified  Olynthus.  He  gave  them  lands  du- 
ring the  war  around  Lake  Bolbe  in  Mygdonia. 

The  Athenian  commanders  took  the  town  of  Therma,  and 
laid  siege  to  Pydna  in  Macedonia ;  and  when  news  came  to 
Athens  of  the  revolt  of  Potidaea,  and  of  sixteen  hundred 
hoplites  and  four  hundred  light  troops  having  gone  from 
Corinth,  to  its  aid,  a  reenforcement  of  forty  ships  and  two 
thousand  hoplites  was  sent  without  delay  to  the  force  before 
Pydna.  This  town  speedily  surrendered,  and  Perdiccas  was 
forced  into  an  alliance  with  Athens.  The  Athenian  forces, 
of  seventy  triremes  and  three  thousand  hoplites,  with  a  good 
number  of  allies,  and  six  hundred  Macedonian  horse,  now 
proceeded  against  the  Potidaeans,  who  with  their  allies  were 
encamped  at  Olynthus.  Their  infantry  was  commanded  by 
Aristeus  the  Corinthian,  the  horse  by  Perdiccas,  who  had 
already  revolted  from  the  Athenians.  The  two  armies  en- 
gaged at  the  Isthmus.  Aristeus  was  victorious  on  the  wing 
where  he  took  his  post ;  but  the  Athenians  were  successful 
on  the  other  wing,  and  when  he  returned  from  the  pursuit, 
he  found  the  battle  lost,  and  collecting  his  men,  set  out  with 
all  speed  for  Potidaea.  The  horse  was  not  engaged  on 
either  side ;  the  victors  lost  a  hundred  and  fifty  men  and 
their  general  Callias ;  on  the  side  of  the  vanquished  there 


SIEGE    OF    POTID^A.  171 

fell  about  double  the  number.  The  Athenians  now  placed 
themselves  at  the  wall  on  the  side  of  Potidaea  towards  Chal- 
cidice ;  and  shortly  after,  Phormion  being  sent  out  with 
sixteen  hundred  hoplites,  raised  a  wall  on  the  Pallene  side, 
and  the  town  was  now  shut  in  by  land,  while  the  fleet  block- 
aded it  by  sea. 

When  the  Corinthians  received  the  intelligence  from  Ari&- 
teus,  they  became  more  vehement  than  ever  in  their  charge 
of  breach  of  truce  against  the  Athenians,  and  at  their  desire 
a  meeting  of  deputies  of  the  Dorian  federation  was  convened 
to  Lacedsemon,  whither  also  were  invited  all  who  had  any 
charge  to  make  against  the  Athenians.  The  ^Eginetes 
therefore,  not  daring  to  do  so  openly,  sent  secretly  to  com- 
plain of  their  being  deprived  of  their  independence  in  viola- 
tion of  the  treaty  of  Pausanias.*  The  Megarians  openly 
complained  that  in  contravention  of  the  same  treaty  f  they 
were  excluded  from  the  Athenian  ports  and  markets. J  The 
Corinthians,  finally,  set  forth  at  length  the  restless  and 
encroaching  ambition  of  the  Athenians,  and  the  necessity 
there  was  for  checking  it  in  time. 

There  chanced  at  this  very  time  to  be  an  Athenian  em- 
bassy at  Sparta,  come  about  some  other  matters ;  and  hear- 
ing the  charges  made  against  their  country,  the  ambassa- 
dors asked  permission  to  speak.     Leave  being  granted,  they 

*  This  was  a  treaty  (onordai)  or  engagement  of  mutual  peace  and 
respect  for  each  other's  independence,  entered  into  by  the  Greeks  after 
the  battle  of  Platsea.  It  could  not  be  the  peace  of  01.  83,  3,  as  jEgina 
had  been  conquered  in  01.  80,  4. 

t  Plut.  Per.  39. 

t  The  Megarians  being  accused  of  having  caused  the  death  of  an 
Athenian  herald,  Charinus  proposed  a  decree  of  hostility,  without  truce 
or  herald,  (aojvovdov  xal  axt'^vxrov^  against  them,  that  any  Megarian. 
who  entered  Attica  should  be  put  to  death,  and  that  the  generals,  be-» 
sides  their  usual  oath,  should  swear  to  invade  Megaris  twice  a  yeaT. 
According  to  the  Comic  poet,  (Plut.  Per.  30,)  some  young  Athenians 
had  carried  away  a  courtesan  from  Megara,  and  the  Megarians  had  by 
way  of  reprisals  seized  two  of  those  who  lived  in  the  house  of  Peri- 
cles' mistress  Aspasia,  to  gratify  whom  he  had  the  above  decree 
passed.     Both  accounts  may  be  correct. 


172  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

displayed  the  great  merits  of  Athens  towards  Greece,  and 
showed  the  honorable  way  in  which  she  had  acquired  her 
present  dominion.  They  did  not  deny  that  she  exercised  it 
with  rigor,  but  maintained  that  she  only  acted  on  the  ordi- 
nary principles  of  human  nature,  and  that  any  others  in  her 
case  would  perhaps  have  acted  worse.  They  advised  them 
to  remain  at  peace,  but  added  that  Athens  had  no  fear  of 
war.  All  then  retired,  and  the  Lacedaemonians  proceeded 
to  deliberate.  King  Archidamus,  a  man  of  age  and  experi- 
ence, having  shown  the  advantages  which  a  naval  power  like 
Athens  possessed,  advised  peace,  at  least  for  the  present; 
but  to  prepare  for  war,  by  collecting  funds  and  forming 
alliances;  meantime,  as  the  Athenians  had  offered  to  submit 
to  law,  to  send  an  embassy  to  Athens.  But  the  Ephor  Sthen- 
elaidas,  in  a  blunt,  laconic  speech,  cried  for  war  without 
delay ;  and  a  great  majority  of  the  assembly  having  voted 
with  him,  the  decision  was  communicated  to  the  allies,  and 
they  were  desired  to  come  again  to  deliberate  on  the  mode 
of  conducting  the  war.  As  usual,  the  Lacedaemonians  sent 
to  consult  the  god  at  Delphi,  and  it  was  said  that  he  assured 
them  of  success  if  they  acted  with  vigor,  and  that,  called 
or  uncalled,  he  would  himself  be  with  them. 

When  the  congress  reassembled  at  Sparta,  most  of  the 
deputies  were  vehement  against  the  Athenians:  the  Co- 
rinthians, who  in  the  interval  had  been  unremitting  in  their 
efforts  to  excite  them,  now  spoke,  as  was  their  practice,  the 
last.  They  reminded  the  people  of  the  interior  that  if  they 
suffered  the  states  of  the  coast  to  be  conquered,  they  would 
lose  the  mart  for  their  produce,  and  the  means  of  obtaining 
foreign  commodities;  they  dwelt,  again,  on  the  necessity 
of  checking  the  ambition  of  Athens,  and  suggested  a  plan 
of  borrowing  money  from  the  sacred  banks  at  Delphi  and 
Olympia,  with  which  the  defection  of  the  mercenary  sailors 
of  the  Athenian  navy  might  be  purchased. 

War  was  thus  unanimously  resolved  on ;  but  as  the  con- 
federacy was  as  yet  by  no  means  in  a  condition  to  begin  it, 
recourse  was  had  to  negotiation  to  gain  time,  to  throw,  if 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    PELOPONNESIAN    WAR.  173 

possible,  the  odium  of  commencing  hostilities  on  the  Athe- 
nians, and  to  cause  dissension  among  them.  An  embassy 
was  therefore  sent  to  Athens,  requiring  the  expulsion  of  those 
hereditarily  polluted  by  the  blood  of  Cylon's  adherents.* 
This  was  aimed  at  Pericles,  whose  mother  was  an  Alcmae- 
onid.  The  Athenians  replied  by  desiring  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians to  put  away  the  iniquity  of  Taenaron  and  of  the  Chal- 
cicecos.f  This  plan  therefore  having  failed,  a  second  em- 
bassy came  from  Sparta,  requiring  the  Athenians  to  retire 
from  Potidaea,  to  leave  ^Egina  independent,  and  to  rescind 
the  decree  against  the  Megarians.  Compliance  being  re- 
fused, ambassadors  came  to  Athens  for  the  third  and  last 
time,  stating  that  the  independence  of  the  Greeks  was  the 
only  condition  of  the  continuance  of  peace.  An  assembly 
was  held ;  some  spoke  for,  some  against  war ;  at  length 
Pericles  rose  and  declared  for  war,  which  he  regarded  as  in- 
evitable, displaying  the  advantages  which  their  naval  power 
and  skill,  their  superior  wealth,  and  the  position  of  their 
country  would  give  them  in  the  contest :  he  proposed  that 
they  should  offer,  however,  to  submit  all  differences  to  the 
decision  of  equity.  A  decree  was  passed  accordingly;  the 
Lacedaemonians  returned  home,  and  the  war  which  was  to 
be  the  ruin  of  Greece  was  thus  rashly  run  into.  (Ol.  87,  2.) 
The  commencement  of  hostilities  was  as  follows. 

One  dark  night  in  the  spring,  a  party  of  Thebans  came 
secretly  to  Plataea,  distant  seventy  stadia,  where  they  were 
admitted  by  the  oligarchic  faction;  but  the  people,  having 
risen,  slew  or  took  them  prisoners;  and  a  large  force  which 
was  coming  from  Thebes  to  their  support  being  impeded  by 
the  swelling  of  the  Asopus,  the  treacherous  enterprise  mis- 
carried. The  Plataeans  sent  off  word  instantly  to  Athens, 
and   a  herald  was  despatched,  desiring  them  to  do  nothing 

*  See  above,  p.  59. 

t  See  above,  p.  138.     Some  time  before,  some  helots  who  had  taken 
refuge  at  the  temple  of  Poseidon  at  Tsenaron  were  dragged  from  it  and 
slaughtered.     This  impiety  was  regarded  as  the  cause  of  the  earth- 
quake which  desolated  Sparta  in  01.  79,  1.     Paus.  vii.  25,  5. 
15* 


174  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

to  their  prisoners  till  the  Athenians  should  arrive  ;  but  what 
the  Athenians  feared  had  already  taken  place  —  the  Plataeans 
had  put  their  prisoners,  one  hundred  and  eighty  in  number, 
to  death  in  cold  blood.  The  thirty  years'  truce  was  now 
clearly  broken,  and  both  sides  prepared  for  war. 


CHAPTER  III.* 

COMMENCEMENT    OF    THE    PELOPONNESIAN    WAR.  INVASION 

OF  ATTICA.  PLAGUE  AT  ATHENS.  SIEGE  OF  PLAT^A. 

NAVAL     ACTION     IN     THE      CORINTHIAN    GULF. DEATH     OF 

PERICLES. REVOLT      OF      MYTILENE. ESCAPE      OF      THE 

PLATjEANS. 

Greece  was  now  full  of  young  and  ardent  spirits,  eager  for 
the  excitement,  ignorant  of  the  evils,  of  war.  Public  opin- 
ion was  on  the  side  of  the  Lacedaemonians,  who  stood  for- 
ward as  the  champions  of  independence  ;  while  the  tyranny 
of  Athens  was  hated  by  those  who  felt  it,  dreaded  by  those 
who  apprehended  it.  Every  mind  was  in  anxious  expecta- 
tion, oracles  and  prophecies  were  circulated  in  all  parts,  the 
sacred  isle  of  Delos  shook  for  the  first  time  on  record,  t  — 
indicative,  as  it  was  thought,  of  the  coming  commotion. 

On  the  side  of  the  Lacedaemonians  were  all  the  Pelopon- 
nesians, — except  the  Argives  and  the  Acheeans,  both  of 
whom  were  neuter,  —  the  Megarians,  Boeotians,  Locrians, 
Phocians,  and  the  Ambraciotes,  Leucadians  and  Anactorians 
of  Acarnania.     The  coast  states  supplied  shipping ;  the  Bceo- 

*  Thuc.  ii.  iii.  1  —  24.     Diod.  xii.  42  —  56.     Plut.  Pericles. 

t  Thuc.  ii.  8.  Herodotus  (vi.  98)  says  that  Delos  shook  before  the 
battle  of  Marathon  for  the  first  and  last  time  in  his  memory,  and  he 
was  living  in  01.  92.  It  may  be  that  both  historians  refer  to  the  same 
event  Thucydides  may  not  have  read  Herodotus,  or  he  may  have 
forgotten  the  passage.     See  Arnold  in  loco. 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  PELOPONNESIAN  WAR.   175 

tians,  Phocians,  and  Locrians  cavalry.  Ships  and  money 
were  also  expected  from  the  Dorian  states  of  Italy  and  Sicily, 
and  embassies  were  sent,  or  to  be  sent,  to  the  King  *  and 
other  foreign  powers. 

On  the  side  of  the  Athenians  were  the  Chians,  Lesbians, 
Plataeans,  Messenians  of  Naupactus,  the  Acarnanians,  Cor- 
cyraeans,  Zacynthians,  the  towns  of  the  coasts  of  Asia  and 
Thrace,  and  all  the  isles  of  the  JEgean,  except  Melos  and 
Thera.  The  Chians,  Lesbians,  and  Corcyraeans  furnished 
shipping.  The  troops  of  Athens  were  in  all  29,000  hoplites, 
1200  horsemen,  and  1600  archers,  and  her  fleet  numbered 
300  triremes,  exclusive  of  those  of  her  allies.  The  annual 
income  from  the  allies  was  600  talents;  the  coined  gold 
and  silver  in  the  Acropolis  amounted  to  6000 ;  the  sacred 
utensils,  votive  offerings,  and  Medic  spoils  were  worth  500 
talents,  and  the  gold  on  the  statue  of  Pallas  Athena,  which 
could  be  taken  off  and  replaced  when  peace  came,  weighed 
40  talents,  equivalent  therefore  to  400  talents  of  silver. 

The  war  was  one  of  opposite  principles,  feelings,  and  in- 
terests. Dorians  were  opposed  to  Ionians;  power  by  land 
to  power  by  sea ;  voluntary  confederacy  to  compulsive  ser- 
vice; men  to  money;  aristocracy  to  democracy;  finally, 
attachment  to  ancient  institutions  to  the  desire  of  innova- 
tion ;  slowness  and  hesitation  in  action  to  rapidity  and  bold- 
ness. The  restless  and  encroaching  spirit  of  the  Athenians, 
fostered  by  Pericles,  caused  the  war,  in  which  they  were 
decidedly  in  the  wrong ;  for  they  had  no  right  whatever  to 
interfere  in  the  dispute  between  Corinth  and  her  colony, 
and  their  conduct  at  Potidaea  violated  all  the  principles  of 
the  Greek  colonial  relations.  The  Spartans  were  to  blame 
(as  they  afterwards  confessed)  in  not  accepting  the  offer  to 
decide  the  dispute  by  law  and  equity ;  but  we  shall  find 
them  from  first  to  last  sincerely  anxious  for  peace. 

*  The  Greeks  usually  called  the  Persian  monarch  the  King,  or  the 
Great  King,  as  being  the  only  king  of  any  note  they  knew  of.  It  is 
thus  the  Italians  of  the  Middle  Ages  called  Naples  simply  the  King- 
dom, (11  Regno,)  it  being  the  only  one  in  Italy. 


176  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Pericles'  plan  for  conducting  the  war  was  to  abandon  At- 
tica to  the  Peloponnesians,  to  bring  all  the  people  into  the 
city,  and  to  send  out  fleets  to  ravage  the  coast  of  Pelopon- 
nesus. When  he  found  the  Lacedaemonians  preparing  to 
invade  Attica,  he  ceased  not  to  urge  the  people  to  retire 
into  the  city,  and  to  give  the  country  up  to  be  ravaged.* 
Nothing  could  be  more  repugnant  to  Attic  feeling  than 
such  a  course.  There  was  no  people  in  Greece  more  fond 
of  a  country  life ;  all  the  ravages  of  the  Persian  war  had 
been  repaired,  and  now  they  were  called  upon  to  abandon 
again  their  houses  and  farms  and  the  temples  of  their  gods, 
and  leave  them  to  be  destroyed  by  their  enemies ;  yet  such 
was  the  influence  of  Pericles  that  they  consented.  They 
sent  their  cattle  over  to  Eubcea  and  the  adjoining  isles,  and 
then,  pulling  down  their  houses,  carried  the  timber  to  Athens. 
Some  found  there  an  abode  with  their  friends  and  relatives, 
others  in  the  temples  and  heroa,  others  in  the  towers  on  the 
walls;  the  rest  constructed  huts  in  the  space  between  the 
Long  Walls,  and  in  the  vacant  parts  of  the  city  and  the 
Piraeeus.  Meantime  every  effort  was  made  to  get  ready  a 
fleet  of  one  hundred  ships  to  ravage  the  Peloponnesus. 

The  city  of  Athens  lay  a  short  distance  from  the  sea,  at 
the  foot  of  the  limestone  rock  which  formed  its  Acropolis. 
It  was  surrounded  by  a  strong  wall,  from  which  ran  two 
others  named  the  Long  Walls;  the  one  forty  stadia  in  length 
to  the  port  of  Piraeus,  the  other  thirty-five  to  that  of  Pha- 
leron :  the  small  peninsula  of  Munychia  was  also  walled 
round  on  the  sea-side.t     The  whole  fortifications  of  Athens 

*  As  Pericles  was  the  guest-friend  (thoo)  of  Archidamus,  and  feared 
that  that  prince,  through  friendship  or  by  the  directions  of  the  Spartan 
government,  would  spare  his  lands  in  the  invasion  of  Attica,  he  told 
the  people  that  in  such  case  he  would  give  them  to  the  state. 

t  There  is  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  about  the  wall  called  by  Plato 
(Gorgias,  §  24,  Bekk.)  the  Middle  Wall,  (to  Si'a  piaov  rt'ixjjoc,)  and  by 
JEschines  (False  Embassy,  51,  25)  the  South  Wall.  Valesius  on 
Harpocration  says  that  the  whole  of  the  Long  Walls  were  so  named  as 
lying  between  the  city  and  the  ports.  The  Scholiast  on  Plato,  who  is 
followed  by  Kruse,  (Hellas,  II.  i.  153,)  maintains  that  it  was  the  wall 


PLAN  OF  ATHENS. 


p.  177. 


A.  Astv,  or  City. 

B.  Long  Walls. 

C.  Piraeus. 

D.  Phalfcron. 

E.  Munychia. 


a.  Acropolis. 

b.  Areiopagus. 

c.  Lyreion,  (Lyceum.) 

d.  Museion,  (Mus&um.) 

e.  Cynosarges. 


/.    Ilissus. 

f.  Cephissus. 
.  Academy. 
i.    Colonos. 


INVASION    OF    ATTICA.  179 

thus  formed  a  circuit  of  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  stadia, 
and  might  from  their  strength  defy  the  attacks  of  any  enemy, 
and  famine  was  not  to  be  dreaded  while  Athens  was  mistress 
of  the  sea. 

The  Lacedaemonian  troops,  led  by  Archidamus,  when  they 
were  joined  by  the  allies,*  passed  the  Isthmus,  and  having 
vainly  sent  an  envoy  to  Athens,  advanced  to  Plataea.  Having 
ravaged  its  lands,  they  entered  Attica,  and  besieged  the 
frontier  fort  of  CEnoe.  While  they  were  before  it  the  Athe- 
nians had  time  to  remove  their  property  out  of  the  country,  and 
Archidamus  was  much  blamed  for  this  delay.  He  had,  in 
reality,  been  from  the  first  adverse  to  the  war,  and  he  hoped 
that  the  Athenians  would  listen  to  terms  while  their  lands 
were  yet  untouched.  Deceived,  however,  in  this  hope,  and 
unable  to  take  CEnoe,  he  entered  and  ravaged  the  plain  of 
Eleusis.  No  one  coming  out  to  oppose  him,  he  advanced 
to  Acharnae,  sixty  stadia  north  of  Athens.  This  was  one 
of  the  principal  Demes  of  Attica,  it  alone  giving  three 
thousand  hoplites,  and  he  hoped  that  the  Acharnians  would 
not  patiently  see  their  lands  ravaged.  There  was  accord- 
ingly great  dissension  in  Athens,  the  Acharnians  and  the 
youth  in  general  being  eager  to  go  out  and  fight ;  but  Pericles 
still  restrained  them,  and  he  would  call  no  assembly  lest  some 
imprudent  resolve  should  be  made.  The  Thessalian  horse, 
and  a  troop  of  the  Athenian,  however,  were  sent  out,  and 
a  skirmish  took  place  between  them  and  the  Boeotians.  At 
length  the  Peloponnesians,  weary  of  delay,  broke  up  from 
Acharnae,  and  having  wasted  the  Demes  on  their  way,  re- 
turned to  Bceotia  by  Oropus,  and  then  dispersed  to  their 
several  homes. 

at  Munychia  connecting  the  Piraeus  and  Phaleron.  K.  O.  Mailer 
and  Dr.  Arnold  suppose  it  to  have  been  an  internal  wall  parallel  to  the 
two  long  walls.  We  incline  to  this  last  opinion.  See  Arnold  on 
Thuc.  ii.  13. 

*  On  these  occasions  each  state  was  required  to  send  two  thirds  of 
its  fighting  men  with  provisions,  as  it  would  appear,  for  forty  days. 
This  was  the  term  of  service  for  the  feudal  tenants  in  the  Middle 
Ages. 


180  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Meanwhile  an  Athenian  fleet  of  one  hundred  triremes, 
with  one  thousand  hoplites  and  four  hundred  and  three 
archers  on  board,  being  joined  by  fifty  triremes  from  Cor- 
cyra,  sailed  round  Peloponnesus,  and  made  a  descent  on  the 
coast  of  Messene,  where  they  attacked  the  town  of  Methone ; 
but  a  young  Spartan,  named  Brasidas,  came  to  its  relief  with 
one  hundred  hoplites,  and  having  forced  his  way  through 
the  Athenian  troops,  saved  the  town.  This  deed  gained  Bras- 
idas great  credit  at  the  time.  The  Athenians  then  departed, 
and  wasted  the  coast  of  Elis.  Meanwhile  another  fleet  of 
thirty  triremes  was  ravaging  the  coast  of  Locris  opposite 
Euboea. 

As  the  Athenians  regarded  the  iEginetes  as  a  chief  cause 
of  the  war,  they  now  adopted  the  cruel  resolution  of  ex- 
pelling them  from  their  island,  and  filling  it  with  Athenian 
colonists,  in  whose  hands  it  would  be  more  secure.  The 
Lacedaemonians,  mindful  of  their  services  in  the  Helot  war, 
and  on  other  occasions,  gave  the  exiles  the  lands  of  Thyrea, 
on  the  borders  of  Laconia  and  Argos,  to  cultivate. 

During  this  summer  the  Athenians  formed  an  alliance 
with  Sitalkes,  king  of  Thrace,  and  Perdiccas  of  Macedonia, 
and  with  the  people  of  Cephallenia.  At  home  a  decree  was 
made  that  one  thousand  talents  of  the  money  on  the  Acrop- 
olis should  be  reserved  to  be  employed  only  in  case  of  a 
hostile  fleet  appearing  before  Athens,  and  that  each  year 
one  hundred  of  the  best  triremes  should  be  set  apart  for  the 
same  purpose. 

During  the  autumn  the  Athenians,  led  by  Pericles,  in- 
vaded and  ravaged  Megaris.  The  fleet  of  100  ships,  which 
was  at  JEgina,  sailed  over  and  joined  the  army,  and  there 
were  now  in  Megaris  10,000  Athenian  and  3000  Metcec  * 
hoplites,  besides  a  large  number  of  light  troops,  —  the  largest 
army  that  Athens  was  able  for  some  time  to  send  to  the  field. 
In  the  winter  the  Athenians,  according  to  their  usual   and 

*  The  metatcs,  (fihoixoi,)  or  sojourners,  were  those  who,  mostly  for 
the  sake  of  trade,  dwelt  in  a  city  of  which  they  were  not  natives.  They 
paid  a  tax  for  protection. 


PLAGUE    AT    ATHENS.  181 

honorable  custom,  gave  public  sepulture  in  the  suburb  of 
the  Cerameicus  to  the  bones  of  those  who  had  fallen  in  the 
war.  Pericles  was  chosen  to  deliver  the  customary  funeral 
oration  ;  and  his  speech,  preserved  by  Thucydides,  is  a 
model  of  sublime  and  dignified  oratory. 

The  following  spring,  (Ol.  87,  3,)*  Archidamus  led,  as 
before,  two  thirds  of  the  Peloponnesians  into  Attica;  where 
they  had  not  been  many  days,  when  the  plague  broke  out  at 
Athens.  They  proceeded  along  the  coast  (Paralus)  to  the 
silver  mines  of  Laurion,  and  having  wasted  all  that  coast, 
went  on  to  ravage  that  opposite  Euboea.  Meantime  the 
Athenian  fleet  of  one  hundred  ships  under  Pericles,  joined 
by  fifty  from  Chios  and  Lesbos,  sailed  over  and  ravaged  the 
coast  of  Epidaurus,  Trcezen,  and  Ilermione,  and  took  and 
destroyed  the  town  of  Prasiae  on  the  coast  of  Laconia.  On 
their  return  they  found  the  Peloponnesians  gone ;  for, 
fearing  the  plague,  they  had  staid  but  forty  days  in  the 
country. 

This  celebrated  plague,  the  first  which  was  known  to  have 
visited  Greece,  was  said  to  have  come  from  Ejjypt  through 
Asia.  It  appeared  first  in  the  Pirreeus,  and  then  spread  to 
the  city.  Owing  to  the  density  of  the  population  and  the 
heat  of  the  weather,  its  ravages  were  dreadful.  The  histo- 
rian Thucydides,  who  had  it  himself,  has  left  a  most  minute 
account  of  it,f  showing  its  effects,  both  physical  and  moral; 
among  the  last  he  notes,  what  is  always  to  be  observed  in 
such  calamities,  the  dreadful  laxity  of  manners  which  took 
place,  the  utter  disregard  of  all  the  restraints  of  religion  and 
law ;  for  it  would  seem  that  with  a  large  portion  of  mankind 
fear  is  the  only  motive  to  obedience,  and  when   that,  as  in 


*  Though  we  place  the  dates  at  the  beginning  of  each  campaign, 
the  reader  must  recollect  that  the  Greek  year  began  at  midsummer. 

t  It  is  curious  that  some  of  the  most  accurate  and  faithful  accounts 
of  plagues  are  to  be  found  in  works  of  fiction  ;  witness  Boccaccio's 
description  of  that  of  Florence,  Defoe's  of  that  of  London,  and  Man- 
zoni's  of  that  of  Milan. 

16 


182  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  present  case,  is  withdrawn,  nothing  remains  to  curb  the 
passions  and  appetites. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  pestilence  does  not  seem  to  have 
visited  Peloponnesus  or  the  other  parts  of  Greece,  but  wher- 
ever there  was  an  Athenian  army  it  was  communicated  to 
it  by  those  who  came  from  Athens.  It  may  give  an  idea  of 
its  virulence  to  observe,  that  when  Hagnon  sailed  with  the 
fleet  which  Pericles  had  commanded  to  Potidaea,  though  he 
was  only  forty  days  away,  he  lost  by  sickness  1500  out  of 
the  4000  hoplites  who  were  aboard,  and  communicated  the 
disease  to  the  troops  there  under  Phormion. 

There  was  always  a  party  in  Athens  adverse  to  the  war, 
and  now,  seeing  the  people  irritated  against  Pericles  on  ac- 
count of  their  losses  and  the  disease,  they  prevailed  on  them 
to  try  to  effect  an  accommodation  with  the  Peloponnesians; 
but  the  embassy  which  was  sent  proved  fruitless.  Pericles 
then  called  an  assembly,  and  spoke  with  his  usual  power  in 
favor  of  continuing  the  war,  and,  as  usual,  he  swayed  the 
multitude  at  his  will.  It  was  resolved  to  persevere;  but  to 
soothe  their  angry  feelings,  he  submitted  to  pay  a  fine  and 
go  out  of  office.  Erelong,  however,  as  he  well  knew  they 
would,  they  again  chose  him  general,  with  full  powers. 

During  the  summer,  Aristeus  the  Corinthian,  and  some 
Lacedaemonians  and  others,  set  out  on  an  embassy  to  the 
King,  to  endeavor  to  form  an  alliance  with  him  against 
the  Athenians.  On  their  way  they  called  on  Sitalkes,  in 
hopes  of  detaching  him  from  his  alliance  with  Athens:  but 
this  prince's  son  Sadocus  had  them  seized  on  their  road  to 
the  Hellespont,  and  given  up  to  the  Athenians,  by  whom 
they  were  put  to  death  in  retaliation  ;  for  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians had,  from  the  beginning  of  the  war,  thus  treated  all 
the  merchants,  whether  Athenians  or  not,  whom  they  found 
sailing  round  Peloponnesus,  —  certainly  an  unjustifiable 
piece  of  barbarity  ! 

Phormion  now  sailed,  with  thirty  ships,  to  the  aid  of  the 
Amphilochians  and  Acarnanians  against  the  Ambraciotes, 
and  afterwards  took  his  station  with  twenty  ships   at  Nau- 


SIEGE    OF    PLAT.EA.  183 

pactus,  to  command  the  Corinthian  Gulf.  Towards  winter, 
the  Potidaeans,  overcome  by  famine,  surrendered.  They 
were  allowed  to  depart,  each  man  with  one,  each  woman 
with  two  garments,  and  a  small  supply  of  money.  Even 
these  terms  seemed  too  mild  to  the  democracy  at  home,  and 
the  generals  were  blamed  for  their  lenity.  The  Potidaeans 
went  to  Chalcidice  and  elsewhere,  and  Athenian  colonists 
were  some  time  after  sent  to  Potidaea. 

The  next  spring  (Ol.  87,  4)  Archidamus  led  the  allies 
into  the  territory  of  Plataea,  and  prepared  to  ravage  it.  In 
reply  to  the  remonstrances  of  the  Plataeans  he  said,  that  if 
they  would  but  remain  neuter,  their  lands  should  be  spared. 
They  made  answer  that  they  could  do  nothing  without  con- 
sulting the  Athenians,  in  whose  hands  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren were ;  and  on  sending  to  Athens,  they  were  desired  to 
hold  out  to  the  uttermost,  and  assured  of  aid.  They  then 
called  out  from  the  walls  that  they  could  not  do  what  was 
required  of  them;  and  Archidamus,  having  taken  the  gods 
and  heroes  of  the  land  to  witness  of  the  justice  of  his  cause, 
commenced  hostilities.  Having  cut  down  all  the  trees,  he 
formed  with  them  a  paling  round  the  town  to  prevent  escape; 
he  then  proceeded  to  raise  a  mound  against  a  part  of  the 
walls.  The  sides  of  this  mound  were  formed  of  timber  from 
Mount  Cithaeron,  and  the  interval  was  filled  with  wood,  clay, 
and  stones.  Day  and  night,  for  seventy  days,  they  wrought 
at  the  mound,  one  part  of  the  army  taking  rest  while  an- 
other was  working. 

The  Plataeans  raised  on  the  wall,  opposite  the  mound,  a 
framework  of  wood,  in  front  of  which  they  fixed  hides  and 
leather  to  protect  both  it  and  the  workmen  against  fiery  ar- 
rows :  they  built  into  this  frame  with  bricks  from  the  ad- 
joining houses.  Finding  that  the  mound  rose  equally  with 
the  wall  they  were  raising,  they  devised  a  new  plan  ;  for 
opening  the  town-wall,  where  the  mound  abutted  against 
it,  they  carried  in  the  earth.  The  besiegers,  perceiving  this, 
made  baskets  of  reeds,  which  they  filled  with  mud  and  put 
down  next  the  wall.     The  besieged,  thus  foiled,  ran  a  mine 


184  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

under  the  mound,  and  kept  taking  the  earth  from  beneath 
it.  Fearing,  however,  that  owing  to  the  paucity  of  their 
numbers  they  might  not  avail,  they  gave  over  raising  the 
wall  against  the  mound,  and  built  in  the  town  a  half-moon 
wall,  whose  ends  met  the  town-wall  on  each  side  beyond 
the  mound  ;  so  that  if  the  besiegers  should  carry  the  outer 
wall,  they  would  still  have  to  continue  their  mound  with 
greater  labor  and  danger  on  to  this  new  one. 

The  Peloponnesians,  having  set  a  large  machine  on  the 
mound,  assailed  with  it  and  shook  the  fortification  of  the 
Plataeans,  to  the  great  terror  of  the  besieged.  They  set 
others  against  other  parts  of  the  walls,  but  the  Plataeans, 
catching  them  in  ropes,  turned  them  aside,  or  letting  beams 
hung  by- chains  fall  upon  them,  broke  the  force  of  the  blow. 
Foiled  thus  in  their  attempts,  the  Peloponnesians  saw  no 
resource  but  a  blockade  :  as  this,  however,  would  be  tedi- 
ous and  expensive,  they  resolved  first  to  try  to  burn  the  town. 
They  therefore  brought  fagots,  and  filled  with  them  the 
space  between  the  mound  and  the  wall,  and  then  piled  as 
far  as  they  could  into  the  town.  Then,  throwing  pitch  and 
sulphur  on  the  wood,  they  set  it  on  fire,  and  instantly  a  ter- 
rific flame  sprang  up.  Had  a  wind  blown  on  the  town,  noth- 
ing could  have  saved  it;  but  providentially  a  storm  of 
rain  and  thunder  came  on  and  quenched  the  flames  and  the 
hopes  of  the  besiegers.  Nothing  now  remaining  but  block- 
ade, they  dug  a  double  ditch  round  the  town,  and  having 
built  a  strong  brick  wall  *  between  the  ditches,  they  left  a 
party  of  men  from  each  state  to  guard  one  half  of  it.  the 
Boeotians  undertaking  the  guard  of  the  remainder.  It  be- 
ing now  late  in  September,  the  army  separated  as  usual  for 
the  winter.  The  garrison  of  Plataea  consisted  of  four  hun- 
dred Plataeans  and  eighty  Athenians,  with  one  hundred  and 
ten  women  to  make  bread  for  them. 

During  the  siege  of  Plataea,  the  Athenians  sent  two  thou- 
sand hoplites  and  two  hundred  horse  against  the  Chalcidians 

*  The  bricks  were  made  from  the  clay  thrown  out  of  the  ditches, 
and  were  unbaked. 


NAVAL  ACTION  IN  THE  CORINTHIAN  GULF.    135 

in  Thrace ;  but  they  were  defeated,  with  the  loss  of  their 
generals  and  four  hundred  and  thirty  men.  The  Lacedae- 
monians also,  at  the  desire  of  the  Ambraciotes,  sent  Cnemus 
with  one  thousand  hoplites  to  Leucas,  where  being  joined 
by  them  and  their  Barbarian  allies  from  Epirus,  he  invaded 
Acarnania;  a  fleet,  meantime,  was  in  preparation  at  Corinth, 
Sicyon,  and  the  adjacent  places.  The  confederates  advanced 
in  three  divisions  against  the  Acarnanian  town  of  Stratos. 
The  Chaonians  and  the  other  Barbarians  marched  in  the 
centre,  the  Leucadians  and  Anactorians  on  the  right,  the 
Peloponnesians  and  Ambraciotes  on  the  left ;  the  space  be- 
tween them  was  considerable.  The  Greeks  moved  with 
order  and  caution;  the  Chaonians,  vain-glorious  and  con- 
fident, pushed  on  heedlessly,  hoping  to  take  the  town  alone ; 
but  the  Stratians,  having  laid  an  ambush,  sallied  forth,  and 
attacked  and  routed  them  ;  and  the  Greeks,  learning  their 
defeat,  passed  on  to  the  River  Anapus,  and  having  received 
the  bodies  of  the  slain,  separated  and  went  home. 

The  very  day  of  the  defeat  of  the  Chaonians,  an  action 
was  fought  in  the  gulf  between  Phormion  and  the  fleet 
which  was  going  to  cooperate  with  Cnemus.  This  fleet  of 
forty-seven  ships  kept  along  the  coast  as  far  as  Patrse  ;  it 
was  then  stretching  across  the  gulf  to  Acarnania,  when 
Phormion,  who  had  been  watching  it,  came  in  sight  with 
his  twenty  Athenian  ships  from  the  mouth  of  the  Evenus. 
As  the  Peloponnesians  had  left  Patrse  in  the  night,  they 
were  now  half  way  across,  and  could  not  avoid  fighting. 
Aware  of  the  superior  skill  of  the  Athenians,  they  placed 
their  ships  in  a  circle,  that  they  might  not  be  able  to  break 
their  line ;  the  small  vessels  were  set  within  the  circle,  and 
five  of  the  best  sailers  remained  inside,  to  give  aid  where 
needed.  Phormion,  having  formed  his  line  ahead,*  kept 
moving  round  and  round  them,  waiting  for  the  breeze  to 
spring  up,  which  blows  every  morning  down  the  gulf,  know- 
ing that  he  could  then  attack  to  most  advantage.     As  he 

*  That  is,  in  a  line  of  single  ships,  xara  uiav  vavv. 

16*  x 


186  HISTORY    O:     GREECE. 

expected,  when  the  wind  blew,  Ok  ships  were  driven  against 
each  other,  and  the  crews  fell  into  the  greatest  confusion. 
The  Athenians  seized  the  moment  of  attack  ;  they  sunk  one 
of  the  admirals'  and  several  other  si  -ps,  and  the  Pelepon- 
nesians  fled,  almost  without  attempting  .  esistance,  to  Patrae 
and  Dyme.  The  Athenians,  having  taken  twelve  ships, 
raised  a  trophy  on  Cape  Rhion,  and  returned  to  Naupactus; 
the  Peloponnesians  sailed  with  the  wreck  of  their  fleet  to 
Cyllene  in  Elis,  where  they  were  joined  by  the  ships  under 
Cnemus  from  Acarnania. 

The  Lacedaemonians,  unused  to  the  sea,  could  see  no 
cause  but  cowardice  for  the  defeat  of  a  large  by  a  small  fleet, 
and  they  sent  Brasidas  and  two  other  officers  out  to  join  Cne- 
mus, with  orders  for  the  fleet,  which  now  contained  seventy- 
seven  ships,  to  put  to  sea.  Phormion,  aware  of  their  inten- 
tions, sent  to  Athens  for  aid,  and  twenty  ships  were  sent 
out ;  but  as  they  had  orders  to  take  Crete  on  their  way, 
they  did  not  arrive  till  it  was  too  late. 

The  Peloponnesians  sailed  round  to  Panormus  in  Achaia, 
where  a  land  army  was  encamped.  Phormion  stationed  his 
ships  without  the  Crissaean  Bay  at  Anti-Rhion  ;  the  enemy 
then  proceeded  to  Rhion,  and  took  their  station  there  ;  the 
distance  between  these  points  being  only  seven  stadia. 
The  two  fleets  remained  six  or  seven  days  opposite  each 
other.  At  length  the  Peloponnesians,  to  draw  the  Athenians 
within  the  gulf,  moved  along  the  coast  in  a  line  of  four  ships 
abreast,  twenty  of  the  swiftest  leading  the  line.  Phormion, 
fearing  for  Naupactus,  as  its  youth  were  in  the  camp  at 
Anti-Rhion,  sailed  in  also  with  his  line  formed  ahead.  As 
soon  as  the  Peloponnesians  saw  them  within  the  gulf,  they 
faced  about  and  crossed  straight  over.  The  eleven  leading 
ships  of  the  Athenians  escaped  into  the  open  gulf  by  supe- 
rior sailing;  of  the  remainder,  one  was  taken  with  its  crew, 
and  the  rest  forced  ashore.  Such  of  the  crews  as  did  not 
escape  by  swimming  were  put  to  the  sword,  and  the  ships 
were  already  taken  in  tow,  when  the  Messenians,  coming 
up,  dashed  into  the  sea,  and  getting  on  board  of  them,  drove 


DEATH    OF    PERICLES.  187 

off  the  victors,  and  saved  the  ships.  Meantime  the  twenty 
Peloponnesian  ships  chased  the  eleven  Athenian  to  Naupac- 
tus.  One  of  the  Athenian  ships  being  pursued  by  a  Leuca- 
dian,  its  captain,  seeing  a  merchantman  at  anchor,  made  for 
it,  and  doubling  round  it,  came  on  the  Leucadian,  and  struck 
her  with  such  force  on  the  side  that  she  went  down.  At  the 
sight  of  this  exploit,  the  Peloponnesians,  who  were  already 
chanting  the  hymn  of  victory,  stopped  short  and  fell  into 
disorder.  The  Athenians  seeing  this  advanced  against  them, 
and  they  fled  to  Panormus,  leaving  six  ships  in  the  hands  of 
the  enemy.  The  Athenians  justly  erected  a  trophy  on 
Anti-Rhion  ;  the  Peloponnesians,  as  they  had  been  success- 
ful in  the  early  part  of  the  day,  and  had  taken  one  ship, 
thought  themselves  entitled  to  raise  one  on  the  opposite 
headland.  Phormion  acquired  great  fame  by  his  conduct  in 
these  two  actions. 

The  Peloponnesians,  before  they  separated  for  the  winter, 
resolved  to  make  an  attempt  on  the  Piraeeus ;  which  they 
learned  from  the  Megarians  was  unguarded.  Each  seaman, 
therefore,  took  his  oar,  cushion,  and  oar-thong,  and  coming 
to  Megara  in  the  night,  they  launched  forty  triremes  and 
sailed  for  the  Piraeeus ;  but,  either  losing  courage  or  impe- 
ded by  the  wind,  they  landed  in  Salamis,  and  began  to  plun- 
der it.  Beacons  were  instantly  raised  to  convey  the  alarm 
to  Athens.  The  terror  at  first  was  great,  but  it  soon  sub- 
sided ;  and  getting  on  board  of  what  ships  were  there,  the 
Athenians  passed  over  to  Salamis,  whence  they  found  the 
enemy  gone.  After  this  alarm  the  Piraeeus  was  more  strictly 
guarded. 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year  the  great  Pericles  died.  His 
latter  days  were  clouded  by  calamity ;  for  the  plague  carried 
off  all  his  legitimate  children,  and  most  of  his  nearest 
relatives.  In  the  height  of  his  power,  some  years  before, 
he  had  caused  a  law  to  b<^  passed  restricting  the  right  of 
citizenship  to  those  who  were  Athenians  on  both  the  father's 
and  mother's  side;  but  now  he  was  obliged  to  supplicate 
the  people  to  dispense  with  his  own  law,  and  enrol  among 


J  83  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  citizens  his  son  of  the  same  name  with  himself,  the  off- 
spring of  the  celebrated  Milesian  Aspasia.  After  his  death, 
events  soon  showed  how  little  he  had  looked  to  conse- 
quences when  engaged  in  establishing  his  own  power  ;  for  his 
place  in  the  popular  assembly  was  instantly  taken  by  Cleon, 
a  man  who  has  acquired  an  infamous  celebrity  as  the  perfect 
type  of  the  selfish,  venal,  insolent,  and  tyrannical  dema- 
gogue.* 

Towards  winter,  Sitalkes,  king  of  Thrace,  as  ally  of  the 
Athenians,  invaded  Macedonia  and  Chalcidice.  To  his  ori- 
ginal subjects  the  Odryssians,  who  dwelt  in  the  plain  be- 
tween Rhodope,  Haemus,  and  the  Euxine,  he  united  the  Ge- 
tans,  who  dwelt  from  Haemus  to  the  Ister,  and  collecting,  as 
he  advanced,  the  tribes  of  Rhodope  and  the  country  thence  to 
the  Strymon,  he  entered  Paeonia,  and  at  the  head  of  150,000 
men,  as  was  said,  of  which  a  third  were  cavalry,  invaded 
Macedonia  from  the  north.  Fearing  to  encounter  so  numer- 
ous an  army  in  the  field,  the  Macedonians  and  Chalcidians 
shut  themselves  up  in  their  towns ;  and  Sitalkes,  having  wast- 
ed the  country  during  thirty  days,  by  the  advice  of  his 
nephew  Seuthes,  led  his  army  home,  as  provisions  began  to 
run  short,  and  the  weather  was  growing  severe.  Seuthes 
had  been  induced  to  give  this  advice  by  Perdiccas  of  Mace- 
donia, who  had  gained  him  by  the  promise  of  the  hand  of 
his  sister  and  a  large  dowry. 

The  following  spring,  (Ol.  88,  1,)  Archidamus  invaded 
Attica  as  usual.  When  their  provisions  were  exhausted,  the 
allies  retired  and  dispersed. 

The  people  of  Lesbos,  with  the  exception  of  the  Methym- 
naeans,  had  long  meditated  revolt  from  Athens,  whose  alli- 
ance they  felt  to  be  a  grievous  yoke.t  The  Mytilenaeans, 
intending  to  seize  the  first  favorable  opportunity,  had  been 
building  ships,  strengthening  their  walls,  securing  their  har- 

*  "  With  the  death  of  Pericles,"  says  K.  O.  Mailer,  "ended  the  de- 
mocracy, and  began  the  ochlocracy." 

\  Aristotle  (Pol.  v.  3)  says  that  a  dispute  relative  to  an  heiress  was 
the  occasion  of  the  revolt  of  Mytilene. 


REVOLT    OF    MYTILENE.  189 

bors,  and  purchasing  corn,  and  hiring  archers  in  the  coun- 
tries on  the  Euxine.  But  the  Tenedians,  Methymnaeans,  and 
a  party  in  Mytilene  itself,  were  devoted  to  Athens,  and  they 
sent  word  of  what  was  going  on. 

The  Athenians  were  unwilling  at  first  to  believe  what  they 
did  not  wish  to  be  true;  but  when  compliance  was  refused 
with  the  orders  which  they  sent  out  to  Lesbos,  they  saw 
that  they  must  have  recourse  to  stronger  measures.  A  fleet 
of  forty  ships,  which  was  about  to  go  round  Peloponnesus, 
was  therefore  ordered  to  sail  secretly  to  Mytilene,  and  fall 
on  and  seize  the  inhabitants,  while  keeping  the  feast  of 
Apollo  Malloeis,  according  to  custom,  without  the  town.  If 
that  failed,  the  admiral  was  to  require  them  to  give  up  their 
ships  and  demolish  their  walls,  and,  on  their  refusal,  to 
make  war  on  them.  To  prevent  intelligence  being  con- 
veyed to  them,  their  ten  ships  which  were  in  the  Athenian 
fleet  were  seized  and  the  crews  cast  into  prison ;  but  an  indi- 
vidual passed  over  to  Euboea,  and  getting  on  board  a  mer- 
chantman which  was  just  sailing,  reached  Mytilene  on  the 
third  day  with  the  news,  and  the  people  therefore  did  not  go 
out  as  usual  to  hold  the  feast. 

When  the  Athenian  fleet  arrived,  the  Mytilenacans  made 
some  show  of  fighting,  but  they  soon  proposed  a  truce,  that 
they  might  send  deputies  to  justify  them  at  Athens.  The 
Athenian  commanders,  doubtful  of  their  own  strength, 
granted  it,  and  the  deputies  set  out ;  at  the  same  time  a 
trireme  sailed  secretly  with  an  embassy  to  Peloponnesus. 
As  was  to  be  expected,  that  to  Athens  was  unsuccessful,  the 
other  envoys  appeared  at  Olyinpia  during  the  games,  and 
having  stated  their  case,  were  received  into  alliance.  To 
make  a  diversion  in  their  favor,  it  was  resolved  to  invade 
Attica  a  second  time  this  year,  by  sea  and  land.  The  Lace- 
daemonians, having  directed  the  allies  to  join  them  as  usual 
at  the  Isthmus,  repaired  thither  themselves,  and  made  prep- 
arations for  conveying  the  ships  across  it ;  but  it  being  har- 
vest time,  the  rest  came  in  very  slowly,  and  the  Athenians, 
having  manned  one  hundred  triremes,  sailed  to  the  Isthmus 
to  show  their  strength;  so  that  seeing  little  hopes  of  forcing 


190  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

them  to  recall  their  fleet  from  Lesbos,  they  returned  home 
to  protect  their  own  coast,  which  they  heard  another 
Athenian  fleet  was  ravaging. 

The  Mytilenaeans  had  meantime  made  a  successful  at- 
tack on  the  Athenians,  and  forced  them  to  retire;  but  the 
Athenians,  being  reenforced  by  their  allies,  anchored  their 
fleet  before  the  harbor,  and  formed  a  naval  camp  on  each 
side,  so  as  to  command  it.  The  land  being  open  to  them, 
the  Mytilenaeans  marched  out  in  a  body  and  made  an  attack 
on  Methymne,  and  having  strengthened  their  allied  towns, 
returned  home.  Soon  after,  Paches  came  out  from  Athens 
with  one  thousand  hoplites ;  and  a  single  wall  with  forts  on 
the  heights  was  built  round  Mytilene  on  the  land  side,  so 
that  it  was  now  completely  shut  in.  The  expenses  of  this 
siege  gave  occasion  to  the  first  property-tax  in  Athens.  It 
produced  two  hundred  talents. 

In  the  winter,  the  garrison  of  Plataea,  seeing  no  hopes  of 
aid  from  Athens,  and  their  provisions  running  short,  re- 
solved to  attempt  the  passage  of  the  wall  built  by  the  be- 
siegers. Having  carefully  counted  the  rows  of  bricks  in  it, 
they  made  ladders  of  a  sufficient  height,  and  waited  till  a 
night  suited  to  their  purpose  should  arrive. 

The  besiecrers  had  built  two  walls,  sixteen  feet  asunder. 
The  interior  space  was  roofed  over  for  the  habitation  of  the 
soldiers;  the  walls  had  battlements,  between  every  ten  of 
which  was  a  tower  of  the  same  breadth  as  the  wall,  and 
which  was  pervious,  affording  shelter  to  the  guards  in  foul 
weather.     Ditches  ran  round  the  walls  on  both  sides. 

The  garrison  selected  for  their  attempt  a  dark,  windy, 
and  rainy  night.  Only  two  hundred  and  twenty  of  them, 
however,  left  the  town,  the  courage  of  the  remainder  having 
failed.  They  kept  at  a  little  distance  from  each  other,  in 
order  that  their  arms  might  not  clash,  and  they  had  the  right 
foot  bare  that  they  might  not  slip  in  the  mud.  The  rattling 
of  the  storm  favored  them,  and  its  violence  had  forced  the 
guards  to  retire  to  the  towers.  Placing  their  ladders  in  the 
space  between  two  of  the  towers,  twelve  men,  armed  only 
with   dagger   and  breastplate,   mounted,  and   went   six   to 


ESCAPE  OF  THE  PLATJEANS.  191 

each  tower  :  they  were  followed  by  others  armed  with  jave- 
lins, after  whom  came  others  bearing  their  shields  to  give 
them  when  engaged.  A  good  number  had  mounted,  when 
one  of  them  chancing  to  throw  down  a  brick  from  the  bat- 
tlements, its  noise  alarmed  the  guards.  But  just  then,  those 
in  the  town  made,  as  agreed  on,  an  attack  on  another  part 
of  the  wall,  to  distract  their  attention,  and  they  remained 
inactive,  while  a  party  of  three  hundred  men,  who  were  ap- 
pointed to  move  about  and  give  aid  where  required,  went 
outside  of  the  wall  in  the  direction  of  the  noise.  Fire-sig- 
nals were  raised  towards  Thebes;  but  signals  were  also 
raised  in  the  town  to  make  them  of  no  avail. 

The  Plataeans  had  now  made  themselves  masters  of  the 
two  towers,  and  setting  ladders,  some  mounted  to  the  top 
of  them,  whence"  they  kept  off  the  enemies  with  their  mis- 
siles. Their  comrades  meantime  pulled  down  the  battle- 
ments, mounted,  and  crossed  the  wall  as  fast  as  they  could, 
and  then,  standing  on  the  other  side  of  the  ditch,  kept  up  a 
discharge  of  darts  and  arrows  on  such  of  the  enemies  as 
appeared.  Those  who  occupied  the  towers  then  descended, 
and  just  as  the  last  of  them  were  preparing  to  cross  the  ditch, 
the  three  hundred  men  came  up  with  torches  in  their  hands. 
The  Plataeans  outside  of  the  ditch,  being  in  the  dark,  shot  at 
them  to  great  advantage  ;  and  their  companions,  in  the  mean 
time,  got  safely  across,  though  the  state  of  the  ditch,  which 
was  thinly  frozen  over,  rendered  the  passage  very  difficult. 

To  mislead  their  enemies,  the  Plataeans  went  for  six  or 
seven  stadia  along  the  road  to  Thebes  ;  and,  just  as  they 
expected,  they  saw  them  pursuing  with  torches  along  that 
leading  to  Cithaeron  :  they  then  turned  to  the  mountains 
on  the  right,  and  made  their  way  to  Athens.  They  had  lost 
but  one  of  their  number,  an  archer  who  was  taken  at  the 
outer  dityh.  Seven  others  had  lost  courage  and  turned  back 
to  the  town ;  those  who  remained  in  Plataea  sent  a  herald 
next  morning  to  demand  their  bodies,  thinking  they  must  all 
have  been  slain,  and  to  their  great  joy  they  learned  their 
escape. 


192  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 


CHAPTER  IV.* 

SURRENDER  OF   MYTILENE  AND  PLATJEA. MASSACRE  IN  COR- 

CYRA.  TRANSACTIONS    IN    WESTERN    GREECE.  OCCUPA- 
TION OF  PYLOS. CAPTURE  OF   THE  SPARTANS. 

The  next  summer,  (01.  88,  2,)  the  Peloponnesians,  having 
sent  their  admiral  Alcidas  with  forty-two  ships  to  Lesbos, 
invaded  Attica,  where  they  remained  long,  and  did  much 
mischief.  Alcidas  made  such  delay  that  food  began  to  run 
short  in  Mytilene.  Salaethus,  a  Spartan  envoy,  who  was 
there,  having  made  the  government  arm  the  Demos  for  a 
sortie  against  the  Athenians,  they  refused,  when  armed,  to 
obey  the  magistrates,  and  threatened,  if  'the  rich  did  not 
bring  forth  their  corn  and  distribute  it,  that  they  would 
give  up  the  town.  As  the  least  of  the  two  evils,  the  upper 
classes  resolved  to  surrender  at  discretion  to  Paches,  only 
stipulating  for  permission  to  send  deputies  to  Athens,  and 
that  no  one  should  be  injured  till  the  decision  of  the  Athe- 
nian people  was  known. 

The  tardy  Spartan  admiral,  when  he  came  to  Myconos, 
heard  of  the  loss  of  Mytilene.  He  sailed  thence  to  Erythrae 
in  Ionia,  and  here  he  was  strongly  urged  to  try  a  sudden 
attack  on  Mytilene,  of  which  the  Athenians  had  now  had 
possession  only  seven  days.  On  his  declining,  he  was 
urged  to  take  Cyme  or  one  of  the  Ionian  towns,  in  order  to 
induce  the  people  there  to  cast  off  the  yoke  of  Athens ;  but 
he  thought  only  of  getting  back  to  Peloponnesus  as  fast  as 
he  could.  He  sailed  along  the  coast  as  far  as  Ephesus,  and 
then  steered  homewards.  Paches  pursued  him  a  good  way 
in  vain.  On  his  return  to  Mytilene  he  sent,  contrary  to  the 
treaty,  the  principal  men,  and  Salaethus  with  them,  prisoners 
to  Athens. 

The  people  of  Athens  were  highly  incensed  against  the 

*  Thuc.  iii.  25,  to  the  end  j  iv.  1—41.   Diod.  xii.  57—63.  Plut.  Nigias. 


SURRENDER    OF    MYTILENE    AND    PLAT^A.  193 

Mytilenseans,  whom  they  had  always,  as  they  supposed, 
treated  so  gently.  Sulsethus  was  put  to  death  at  once,  though 
he  offered  the  liberation  of  Plataea  as  a  ranson  for  his  life ; 
and  at  the  impulse  of  Cleon,  who  was  now  the  leading  dema- 
gogue, a  decree  was  passed  to  put  to  death  not  only  those 
whom  Paches  had  sent,  but  all  the  males  of  puberty  in  Myt- 
ilene,  and  to  sell  the  women  and  children  for  slaves.  A  tri- 
reme was  instantly  despatched  with  these  instructions  to 
Paches ;  but  next  day  the  Athenians,  who  were  not  natu- 
rally a  cruel  people,  began  to  repent  of  what  they  had  done ; 
and  the  friends  of  humanity,  taking  advantage  of  this  change, 
had  another  assembly  called  to  reconsider  the  decree.  Cleon 
avowing,  as  Pericles  and  others  had  done,  that  the  Athenian 
dominion  was  a  tyranny,  maintained  that  it  could  only  be 
held  by  tyrannic  measures,  and  he  urged  the  people  not  to 
relent ;  Diodotus,  on  the  other  side,  showed  that  it  was  im- 
politic, if  nothing  else,  to  drive  their  allies  to  despair  ;  and 
on  the  votes  being  taken,  a  small  majority  appeared  in  fa- 
vor of  mercy.  A  trireme  was  instantly  sent  off  with  coun- 
ter orders  to  Paches.  The  Mytilenaean  deputies  put  wine 
and  bread  on  board,  and  promised  the  crew  a  large  reward 
if  they  should  arrive  in  time.  They  rowed  night  and  day, 
eating  bread  dipped  in  wine  and  oil  as  they  rowed,  and  sleep- 
ing by  turns ;  and  as  they  met  no  adverse  winds,  and  the  crew 
of  the  other  trireme  had  not  hurried  with  their  unpleasant 
commission,  they  arrived  just  as  Paches  had  read  and  was 
about  to  execute  the  decree.  Frugal,  however,  of  their 
mercy,  were  the  Athenian  people!  The  prisoners  sent  to 
Athens  by  Paches,  near  one  thousand  in  number,  were,  on 
the  proposal  of  Cleon,  all  put  to  death;  the  walls  of  Mytilene 
were  thrown  down,  and  the  ships  seized ;  all  Lesbos,  except 
Methymne,  was  divided  into  three  thousand  lots,  of  which 
three  hundred  were  set  apart  for  the  gods,  and  the  rest 
distributed  among  Athenian  citizens,  to  whom  the  Lesbians, 
who  cultivated  them,  paid  an  annual  rent  of  two  minas  a  lot. 
Such  was  Athenian  mercy  !  Let  us  now  see  how  the  Spar- 
tans exercised  this  godlike  quality.  Plataea,  hopeless  of  aid, 
17  Y 


194  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

and  exhausted  by  want,  now  surrendered.  The  besiegers 
could  have  taken  it,  but  as  they  expected  that  in  case  of 
peace  the  conquests  on  both  sides  would  be  restored,  and 
they  wished  to  retain  Platsea,  which  they  could  do  if  a  vol- 
untary surrender  was  made,  they  proposed  to  the  Platseans 
to  give  up  the  town  and  take  their  trial,  assuring  them  that 
none  but  the  guilty  should  be  punished.  The  terms  were 
accepted;  five  judges  came  from  Sparta;  no  charge  was 
made  against  the  Plataeans ;  they  were  only  asked  what  ser- 
vice they  had  rendered  the  Lacedaemonians  and  their  allies 
in  the  present  war.  They  saw  at  once  that  they  were  to 
be  sacrificed  to  the  Thebans  :  they  therefore  only  urged  their 
former  merits,  and  the  medism  of  the  Thebans,  reminded 
the  Lacedaemonians  that  it  was  by  their  advice  they  had  put 
themselves  under  the  protection  of  Athens,  and  concluded 
by  imploring  mercy.  The  Thebans  replied,  endeavoring 
to  justify  themselves,  and  excite  the  judges  against  the  Pla- 
taeans; and  as  they  were  a  powerful  and  a  useful  ally  in 
the  present  war,  their  arguments  prevailed.  The  former 
question  was  again  put  to  the  Plataeans,  and  each,  as  he 
answered  in  the  negative,  was  led  to  execution.  Thus  two 
hundred  Plataeans,  and  with  them  twenty-five  Athenians, 
were  butchered  in  cold  blood.  The  women  were  sold  for 
slaves,  the  town  and  lands  given  to  the  Thebans,  who  at 
first  gave  the  town  to  some  Megarian  exiles  and  to  the  Pla- 
tseans of  their  party,  to  live  in ;  but  the  next  year  they  lev- 
elled it,  building  out  of  the  materials  a  large  inn  or  cara- 
vanserai at  the  Heraeon,  and  a  temple  to  the  goddess.  The 
land  was  made  public  property,  and  let  on  lease  for  ten 
years  to  Theban  citizens.  Such  was  the  end  of  Plataea,  in 
the  ninety-third  year  from  her  alliance  with  Athens. 

One  act  of  atrocity  follows  another  in  this  unhappy  war. 
We  must  now  turn  our  view  to  Corcyra.  The  Corinthians 
had  released  the  Corcyreans  whom  they  had  taken  at  Epi- 
damnus,  on  their  giving  sham  security  for  eight  hundred 
talents,  in  reality  on  an  understanding  that  they  would  gain 
over  the  island  to  them.     They  kept  their  word,  but  they 


MURDER    OF    PEITHIAS.  195 

were  counteracted  by  Peithias,  the  leader  of  the  Demos  and 
the  friend  of  Athens :  they  therefore  accused  him  to  the 
people  of  a  design  to  reduce  the  island  beneath  the  Athenian 
dominion.  He  in  return  charged  five  of  the  richest  among 
them  with  cutting  stakes  in  the  groves  of  Zeus  and  Al- 
cinoiis ;  and  as  the  penalty  was  a  staler  for  each  stake,  and 
therefore  amounted  to  a  large  sum,*  they  sat  as  suppliants 
at  the  temples.  Hearing  that  Peithias,  who  was  a  senator, 
was  persuading  the  people  to  an  alliance  offensive  and  de- 
fensive with  Athens,  they  arose,  and  taking  daggers,  rushed 
into  the  senate-house  and  murdered  him  and  sixty  other 
persons.  They  then  assembled  the  people,  and  having  made 
them  vote  not  to  admit  more  than  one  ship  at  a  time  of 
either  of  the  belligerent  parties  into  their  port,  they  sent  an 
embassy  to  announce  this  resolve  at  Athens. 

The  Athenians  took  the  ambassadors  and  confined  them 
at  iEgina.  Meantime,  encouraged  by  the  presence  of  a  Co- 
rinthian trireme  and  some  Lacedaemonian  ambassadors,  the 
oligarchs,  who  had  now  the  upper  hand  at  Corcyra,  fell  on 
and  defeated  the  Demos.  In  the  night  the  Demos  fled  to 
the  Acropolis  and  the  higher  parts  of  the  town,  and  they 
kept  them  and  the  port  named  the  Hyllaic  harbor:  the 
others  held  the  market,  where  most  of  them  lived,  and  the 
harbor  which  was  close  to  it. 

Next  day  both  parties  sent  out  into  the  country  to  try  and 
gain  the  slaves  by  the  offer  of  liberty.  These  mostly  joined 
the  Demos,  but  eight  hundred  auxiliaries  came  over  to  the 
others  from  the  main  land.  After  the  interval  of  a  day,  the 
parties  came  again  to  blows  :  the  Demos  were  victorious, 
and  the  oligarchs,  fearing  lest  they  might  seize  the  docks, 
set  fire  to  and  burned  the  houses  round  the  market  without 
distinction.     In  the  night  the  Corinthian  ship  made  sail,  and 

*  If,  as  is  probable,  this  was  the  silver  stater,  it  was  four  drachmas; 
the  gold  one  was  worth  twenty  drachmas.  Dr.  Arnold  thinks  the  no- 
bles were  tenants  of  the  sacred  ground,  and  had  held  it  for  a  long  course 
of  years,  and  been  in  the  habit  of  cutting  the  trees  when  they  wanted 
them,  in  which  case  the  number  cut  may  have  been  considerable. 


196  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

most  of  the  allies  from  the  main  land  slunk  home.  The  fol- 
lowing day  Nicostratus,  an  Athenian  general,  came  with 
twelve  ships  and  five  hundred  Messenian  hoplites  from  Nau- 
pactus.  He  sought  to  reconcile  the  two  parties,  and  induce 
them  to  form  a  strict  alliance  with  Athens  ;  and  having  suc- 
ceeded, was  about  to  depart,  when  the  leaders  of  the  Demos 
persuaded  him  to  leave  them  five  of  his  ships,  to  give  them 
the  advantage  in  any  future  conflict,  and  to  take  five  of  theirs 
in  their  stead.  They  then  selected  their  enemies  to  man 
these  ships,  who,  fearing  that  they  were  to  be  sent  to  Athens, 
sat  as  suppliants  at  the  temple  of  the  Dioscuri.  Nicostratus 
tried  to  reassure  them,  but  in  vain  ;  the  people  then,  affecting 
to  be  convinced  that  they  had  some  bad  design,  took  arms, 
and  would  have  killed  some  of  them  but  for  Nicostratus.  The 
rest  of  the  aristocrats,  to  the  number  of  four  hundred,  went 
and  sat  as  suppliants  in  the  Heraeon  ;  but  the  people  per- 
suaded them  to  pass  over  to  the  island  opposite  it,  whither 
they  sent  them  provisions. 

Four  or  five  days  after,  came  a  Peloponnesian  fleet  of  fifty- 
three  ships,  under  Alcidas  and  Brasidas.  The  Corcyrseans 
got  ready  in  all  haste  sixty  ships,  and,  led  by  the  twelve 
Athenian  triremes,  moved  out  to  engage  them.  The  action 
lasted  the  entire  day,  and  terminated  in  favor  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnesians.  Next  day  Brasidas  proposed  to  attack  the  town, 
but  the  indecisive  Alcidas  refused  :  they  landed  at  the  other 
end  of  the  island  and  plundered  the  fields  ;  and  in  the  night, 
having  learned  by  fire-signals  that  sixty  Athenian  ships  were 
coming  from  Leucas,  they  set  out  for  home,  hauling  their 
ships  across  the  Leucadian  isthmus,  to  avoid  fighting  the 
Athenians. 

The  Demos  at  Corcyra,  fearing  that  their  prisoners  might 
make  some  attempt  against  them,  had  brought  them  back  to 
the  Heraeon ;  and  now,  imboldened  by  the  presence  of  the 
Athenian  fleet,  they  resolved  to  glut  their  vengeance.  Having 
made  their  own  ships  sail  round  to  the  Hyllaic  harbor,  they 
put  to  death  such  of  the  opposite  party  as  were  in  them  : 
then  going  to  the  Heraeon,  they  persuaded  fifty  of  the  sup- 


MASSACRE    IN    CORCYRA.  197 

pliants  to  come  forth  and  stand  their  trial.  All  these  were 
forthwith  put  to  death  ;  the  rest,  seeing  no  chance  of  escape, 
put  an  end  to  their  lives,  some  by  hanging  themselves  out  of 
the  sacred  trees,  others  in  other  ways.  During  seven  days 
the  Demos  put  to  death,  under  the  pretence  of  their  being 
hostile  to  the  popular  state,  their  supposed  enemies.  Private 
enmity  or  private  gain  actuated  many ;  debtors,  for  example, 
cancelled  their  debts  with  the  blood  of  their  creditors. 
Atrocities  were  perpetrated  beyond  what  were  usual  on  such 
occasions ;  fathers  slew  their  own  sons ;  suppliants  were 
dragged  from  the  temples,  and  slaughtered  beside  them ;  some 
were  built  up  in  the  temple  of  Dionysus,  where  they  perished 
of  hunger.  The  Athenians  remained  cool  spectators,  if  not 
approvers,  of  these  atrocities.  About  five  hundred  persons 
escaped  over  to  the  main  land,  whence  they  returned  some 
time  after,  and  having  fortified  a  position  on  an  eminence 
named  Istone,  did  their  enemies  all  the  mischief  in  their 
power. 

In  the  winter  of  this  year  the  plague  revisited  Athens, 
and  continued  for  a  year.  There  died  of  it  on  the  whole 
three  hundred  horsemen,  four  thousand  four  hundred  hop- 
lites,  and  an  immense  number  of  the  inferior  people. 

The  following  summer,  (01.  88,  3,)  the  Peloponnesians 
appeared  in  arms  as  usual  at  the  Isthmus,  under  the  Spartan 
King  Agis ;  but  they  did  not  invade  Attica,  being  prevented 
by  the  earthquakes  which  were  so  frequent  this  year  in 
Greece.  The  Athenians,  on  their  part,  though  suffering  from 
the  plague,  sent  out  two  fleets,  one  of  thirty  ships,  under 
Demosthenes  and  Procles,  to  go  round  Peloponnesus;  the 
other,  of  sixty  ships,  with  two  thousand  hoplites,  under  Ni- 
cias,  against  the  Isle  of  Melos,  which  persisted  in  refusing  to 
become  one  of  their  subject  allies. 

Nicias  landed  and  ravaged  the  island,  but  the  Melians 
would  not  submit.  He  then  sailed  to  Oropus  in  Bceotia, 
and  a  land  force  from  Athens,  under  Hipponicus,  son  of  Cal- 
Iias,  having  joined  him,  they  entered  and  plundered  the  lands 
of  Tanagra.  Next  day  the  Tanagraeans,  joined  by  some 
17* 


198  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Thebans,  came  out  and  engaged  them,  but  were  defeated. 
Having  raised  a  trophy,  the  land  troops  returned  to  Athens, 
and  Nicias  sailed  on  and  ravaged  the  coast  of  Locris. 

Demosthenes,  meantime,  was  at  Acarnania,  acting  against 
the  Leucadians.  While  here,  the  Messenians  urged  him  to 
come  and  make  war  on  their  enemies  the  ^Etolians,  showing 
him  that  though  they  were  a  numerous  and  warlike  people, 
yet,  from  their  mode  of  living,  scattered  in  villages,  and  using 
only  light  arms,  it  would  be  no  difficult  matter  to  conquer 
them.  Demosthenes  conceived  that  if  he  could  reduce  the 
yEtolians,  he  might,  with  them  and  a  part  of  the  Epeirotes, 
march  at  the  back  of  Parnassus  and  into  Phocsi,  where  being 
joined  by  the  Phocians,  he  might  make  a  sudden  irruption 
by  the  pass  of  Elateia  into  Boeotia.  He  therefore  resolved 
to  follow  the  advice  of  the  Messenians.  He  sailed  to  Sollion  ; 
and  as  the  Acarnanians  refused  to  join  him,  he  proceeded 
with  the  Zacynthians  and  some  of  the  other  allies  to  Locris, 
and  without  waiting  for  the  Locrians,  who  were  to  share  in 
the  expedition,  he  entered  ^Etolia,  and  plundered  three  of 
the  open  villages  of  that  country.  In  an  attempt  on  a  fourth, 
he  was  defeated  by  the  yEtolians,  who  had  now  assembled, 
and  was  forced  to  retire  to  Naupactus.  Procles,  the  other 
commander,  with  a  hundred  and  twenty  Athenian  hoplites 
and  a  good  number  of  the  allies,  was  slain.  Demosthenes 
sent  home  the  ships;  but  fearing  the  indignation  of  the 
people,  he  himself  staid  about  Naupactus. 

The  ^Etolians  now  sent  to  Corinth  and  Sparta  to  propose 
a  joint  attack  on  Naupactus;  the  Lacedaemonians  in  the 
autumn  directed  three  thousand  hoplites  of  the  allies  to  join 
them,  and  having  obtained  a  free  passage  through  Locris, 
they  came  and  laid  siege  to  that  town.  But  Demosthenes 
hastened  to  Acarnania,  and  having  with  some  difficulty 
procured  a  thousand  hoplites,  brought  them  to  Naupactus, 
which,  as  it  had  strong  walls,  it  was  easy  to  defend.  The 
besiegers,  finding  they  could  not  take  it,  retired  and  dis- 
persed. 

In  this  summer  the  Lacedaemonians,  at  the  desire  of  the 


TRANSACTIONS    IN    WESTERN    GREECE.  199 

Trachinians  and  Dorians,  founded  a  colony,  named  Hera- 
cleia,  within  about  forty  stadia  of  Thermopylae,  and  twenty 
of  the  sea.  They  expected  to  find  it  very  useful  for  keeping 
up  a  communication  with  Thrace,  and  reckoned  that  by 
having  a  fleet  there,  they  could  at  any  time  pass  over  to  Eu- 
bcea.  The  Athenians  were  at  first  apprehensive  ;  but  their 
fears  proved  vain,  as  the  colony  never  became  of  any  great 
importance  ;  for  the  Thessalians,  not  relishing  this  settlement 
of  strangers  on  their  territory,  harassed  the  colonists,  whom 
moreover  the  Lacedaemonian  governors,  acting  with  their 
usual  harshness,  disgusted  and  alienated. 

When  the  Peloponnesians  retired  from  Naupactus,  the 
Ambraciotes  prevailed  on  their  general  Eurylochus  to  lead 
them  to  join  in  an  attack  on  the  Amphilochian  Argos.  In 
the  beginning,  therefore,  of  the  winter,  three  thousand  Ara- 
braciote  hoplites  entered  the  Argeia,  and  took  Olpae,  a  place 
on  the  coast  twenty-five  stadia  from  Argos.  The  Acarna- 
nians  came,  some  to  the  defence  of  Argos,  others  posted 
themselves  at  a  place  named  Crenae  to  stop  Eurylochus,  who 
was  advancing  from  Calydon,  and  they  sent  to  invite  De- 
mosthenes to  come  and  take  the  command.  Eurylochus, 
having  crossed  the  Acheloos,  marched  through  Acarnania 
unimpeded,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  night,  passed  be- 
tween Argos  and  Crenae,  and  reached  Olpae  in  safety. 

Demosthenes  was  now  arrived,  and  there  was  also  a  fleet 
of  twenty  Athenian  ships  in  the  bay.  A  battle  was  fought, 
in  which,  owing  to  the  judicious  arrangements  of  Demos- 
thenes, the  Acarnanians  gained  a  decisive  victory.  Eurylo- 
chus and  another  Spartan  general  having  fallen,  Menedaeus, 
the  remaining  commander,  sent  to  propose  to  surrender  Olpae 
on  condition  of  a  free  passage.  This  was  publicly  refused, 
but  he  was  secretly  told  that  the  Peloponnesians  might  depart 
in  safety.  The  object  of  Demosthenes  and  the  Acarnanian 
chiefs  was  to  make  the  Lacedaemonians  odious  in  this  coun- 
try as  treacherous  and  self-interested,  and  to  get  the  Ambra- 
ciotes and  their  other  allies  into  their  power.  The  offer,  how- 
ever, was  accepted,  and  under  the  pretext  of  gathering  herbs 


200  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

and  fire-wood,  the  Peloponnesians  all  came  out.  They  were  at 
some  distance  when  the  Ambraciotes  perceived  their  depart- 
ure, and  ignorant  of  the  secret  agreement,  they  resolved  to 
follow  them.  The  Acarnanians  attacked  them  all  at  first ; 
but  when  they  were  told  by  their  officers  of  the  treaty  with 
the  Peloponnesians,  they  spared  them  as  far  as  they  could 
distinguish  them.  About  two  hundred  of  the  Ambraciotes 
were  slain;  the  rest  escaped  to  Agrais. 

Meantime  the  Ambraciotes  at  home,  when  they  heard  of 
the  first  capture  of  Olpse,  hastened  thither  with  all  their 
strength.  They  had  entered  Amphilochia  ignorant  of  what 
had  occurred,  when  Demosthenes,  hearing  of  their  approach, 
sent  a  strong  party  to  lie  in  ambush  for  them.  There  were 
two  hills,  not  far  from  Olpse,  named  Idomene,  on  the  lower 
of  which  the  Ambraciotes  had  taken  their  post :  the  troops 
sent  by  Demosthenes,  arriving  by  night,  took  possession  of 
the  other.  In  the  evening  Demosthenes  led  his  army  out 
in  two  divisions,  one  going  with  himself  along  the  plain, 
the  other  through  the  hills.  He  reached  their  camp  while 
it  was  yet  dark,  and  as  he  had  set  the  Messenians,  who  spoke 
the  Doric  dialect,  in  advance,  who  were  therefore  supposed 
to  be  their  friends  from  Olpae,  the  surprise  was  complete. 
The  slaughter  was  great ;  those  who  fled  were  slain  by  the 
division  coming  through  the  hills,  or  by  those  in  ambush; 
some  swam  to  the  Athenian  triremes,  where  it  would  appear 
they  found  no  mercy  either,  for  we  are  told  that  a  very  small 
number  got  home  alive. 

The  next  day  a  herald  came  from  Agrais  to  demand  the 
bodies  of  those  who  had  been  slain  on  the  former  occasion. 
When  he  saw  the  arms  of  the  slain,  he  marvelled  at  the 
number ;  and  when  he  learned  what  had  occurred,  he  was 
so  overwhelmed  with  grief  that  he  went  away  without  claim- 
ing any  of  the  bodies.  The  historian  does  not  give  the  num- 
ber of  the  slain,  because  he  says  it  was  incredible  ;  it  was 
the  greatest  loss,  he  adds,  that  any  town  ever  experienced 
in  the  same  space  of  time.  The  allies  having  refused  to  join 
in  an  attack  on  Ambracia,  which  might  easily  be  taken,  De- 


OCCUPATION    OF    PYLOS.  201 

mosthenes,  who  had  now  nothing  to  fear  at  home,  sailed  for 
Athens,  and  the  confederates  made  peace  with  the  Ambra- 
ciotes  on  terms  which  do  honor  to  their  moderation. 

The  seventh  year  of  the  war  (Ol.  88,  4)  opened  as  usual 
with  an  invasion  of  Attica ;  but  as  the  corn  was  not  ripe, 
and  an  event  occurred  which  called  them  home,  the  in- 
vaders remained  but  fifteen  days  in  the  country. 

The  Athenians,  who  had  begun  to  interfere  in  the  poli- 
tics of  Sicily,  were  now  sending  thither  a  fleet  of  forty  ships. 
The  commanders,  Eurymedon  and  Sophocles,  were  directed 
to  take  Corcyra  in  their  way,  and  aid  the  Demos  against  the 
exiles,  to  whose  support  sixty  ships  were  come  from  Pelo- 
ponnesus. Demosthenes  obtained  permission  to  go  with 
them,  and  to  use  the  fleet  in  any  attempt  that  he  deemed 
feasible  on  Peloponnesus. 

As  they  were  coasting  Messene,  Demosthenes  proposed 
that  they  should  land  and  fortify  the  promontory  of  Pylos, 
where  there  was  a  good  harbor ;  adding,  that  if  a  Messenian 
garrison  was  placed  there,  they  might  do  the  Lacedaemonians 
great  injury,  as  they  spoke  the  same  dialect  with  them,  and 
were  akin  to  the  people  about  there.  The  generals  refused, 
and  were  sailing  for  Corcyra,  when  a  storm  obliged  them 
to  take  shelter  in  the  harbor  of  Pylos.  Here  the  soldiers, 
to  whom  also  Demosthenes  had  applied  in  vain,  began  of 
themselves  by  way  of  pastime  to  build  the  wall.  Having 
no  tools,  they  put  the  stones  together  in  the  best  way  they 
could,  and  they  carried  mud  on  their  backs  by  locking  their 
hands  under  it.  As  the  position  was  naturally  strong,  they 
expected  to  have  it  secured  before  any  aid  could  come  from 
Sparta,  which  was  four  hundred  stadia  distant.  In  six  days 
the  wall  was  built  across  the  land  side :  they  then  departed, 
leaving  Demosthenes  with  five  ships  to  guard  it. 

The  Lacedaemonians,  who  were  at  this  time  keeping  one 
of  their  festivals,  made  light  of  the  matter.  As  soon,  how- 
ever, as  the  news  reached  the  army  in  Attica,  it  was  resolved 
to  return  home ;  and  the  Spartans,  with  the  nearest  Perice- 
cians,  set  off  immediately  for  Pylos :  the  fleet  was  also  re- 

z 


202  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

called  from  Corcyra,  and,  as  before,  the  ships  were  dragged 
across  the  Leucadian  isthmus,  and  thus  escaping  the  Athe- 
nians came  to  Pylos,  Which  was  now  invested  by  land  and 
by  sea.  Before  they  came,  however,  Demosthenes  had  sent 
two  of  his  ships  to  call  to  his  aid  the  Athenian  fleet,  which 
was  at  Zacynthus. 

At  the  entrance  of  the  harbor  of  Pylos*  lies  the  islet  of 
Sphacteria.  The  space  between  it  and  Pylos  would  only 
admit  two  triremes  abreast ;  the  entrance  at  the  other  end, 
which  is  wider,  would  admit  eight  or  nine.  The  islet  was 
woody  and  desert,  and  it  was  thought  that  by  occupying  it 
with  soldiery,  and  mooring  triremes  across  the  two  entrances 
of  the  harbor,  the  Athenians  could  be  prevented  from  giving 
any  aid  to  the  besieged,  who,  as  the  promontory  without 
the  harbor  offered  no  landing-place,  might  then  easily  be 
reduced  by  famine.  Accordingly  four  hundred  and  twenty 
hoplites  with  their  helots  were  placed  on  the  islet. 

Demosthenes  hauled  his  three  triremes  on  shore  under 
the  wall,  and  raised  a  paling  round  them.  He  armed  the 
sailors  as  well  as  he  could,  most  of  them  having  only  osier 
shields,  and  even  for  these  he  was  indebted  to  fortune,  which 
had  brought  two  Messenian  privateer-boats  into  the  har- 
bor :  there  were  forty  hoplites  in  these  boats,  which  added 
materially  to  his  strength.  Having  selected  sixty  hoplites 
and  some  archers,  and  leaving  the  rest  to  guard  the  wall, 
he  took  his  post  with  them  where  the  defences  were  slight, 
at  the  water  edge  in  the  harbor.  The  Lacedaemonians, 
while  their  land  forces  assailed  the  wall,  ran  their  ships  in 
reliefs  to  this  place;  but  the  captains,  fearing  to  damage  their 
vessels,  hesitated  to  go  in  close  to  shore,  till  Brasidas,  who 
commanded  one,  called  to  them  not  to  suffer,  for  the  sake 
of  sparing  paltry  timber,  an  enemy  to  establish  himself  in 
their  country,  but  boldly  to  run  their  ships  ashore.  He  then 
made  his  own  steersman  lay  his  ship  in  close  to  the  land; 
and  he  was  on  the  gang-board  leading  his  men,  when,  having 
received  several  wounds,  he  dropped  his  shield  into  the  water, 

*  This  is  the  port  of  Navarin,  so  famous  of  late  years. 


OCCUPATION    OF    PYLOS.  203 

and  fell  himself  back  in  a  swoon  into  the  ship.  The  attack 
was  continued  during  the  remainder  of  this  and  a  part  of  the 
following  day.  On  the  third  day  the  besiegers  sent  some 
of  their  ships  to  Asine  for  timber  to  construct  machines,  and 
Demosthenes  raised  a  trophy  on  which  he  hung  the  shield 
of  Brasidas. 

Eurymedon  soon  arrived  with  the  Athenian  fleet,  and 
seeing  the  coast  and  the  island  full  of  troops,  and  the  ships 
lying  in  the  harbor,  he  retired  for  the  night  to  the  adjacent 
Isle  of  Prote.  Next  morning  he  sailed  for  the  harbor,  and 
as  the  Lacedaemonians  had  not,  as  they  intended,  occupied 
the  entrances,  the  Athenians  went  in  at  both  sides  of  the 
islet,  and  attacked  and  put  to  flight  all  the  ships  which 
came  in  their  way,  taking  five  of  them.  They  then  fell  on 
those  other  ships  which  the  men  were  only  now  getting 
aboard  of;  and  were  dragging  away  some  of  the  empty  ones, 
when  the  Lacedaemonians,  rushing  into  the  water,  laid  hold 
of  them.  After  much  tumult,  and  many  being  wounded 
and  slain  on  both  sides,  the  conflict  terminated.  The  Athe- 
nians retained  only  the  five  ships  which  they  had  first  taken ; 
they  raised  a  trophy,  and  kept  a  strict  watch  on  the  island. 

When  the  intelligence  reached  Sparta,  the  chief  magis- 
trates came  down  to  Pylos  to  see  the  state  of  things,  and 
perceiving  that  there  was  no  chance  of  getting  their  men 
out  of  the  island,  they  proposed  to  the  Athenian  command- 
ers to  make  a  truce,  that  they  might  send  an  embassy  to 
Athens.  The  truce  was  made  on  these  terms  :  All  the  ships 
in  Laconia  were  to  be  given  up  to  the  Athenians ;  no  attack 
was  to  be  made  on  the  wall  by  land  or  sea ;  provisions  were 
to  be  sent  daily  to  those  in  the  island  in  presence  of  the 
Athenians,  and  no  vessel  to  approach  it  secretly :  the  Athe- 
nians were  to  make  no  attack  on  the  Peloponnesians;  an 
Athenian  trireme  was  to  convey  the  ambassadors  to  and 
from  Athens;  on  their  return  the  truce  was  to  end,  and  the 
ships  to  be  given  back.     The  ships  were  sixty  in  number. 

The  ambassadors,  when  they  came  to  Athens,  proposed  a 
peace  and   alliance  between  the  two  states.     There  was  a 


204  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

party,  mostly  the  land-owners,  who  had  been  always  adverse 
to  the  war,  and  would  gladly  accept  so  honorable  a  peace 
but  the  demagogue  of  the  day  was  Cleon,  a  rude,  ignorant 
brutal  man,  who  exercised  the  trade  of  a  tanner,  and  had 
great  influence  over  the  lower  people  of  the  city,  who,  from 
their  numbers  and  the  fatal  measures  of  Pericles,  were  now 
omnipotent  in  the  assembly  ;  and  he  persuaded  them  to  an- 
swer, that  those  in  the  isle  must  first  surrender  and  be 
brought  to  Athens,  that  Pegse,  Nisaea,  Trcezen,  and  Achaia, 
of  which  the  Athenians  had  been  deprived  in  the  season  of 
their  distress,  must  be  restored,  and  that  then  a  treaty  might 
be  concluded. 

As  the  affair  concerned  their  allies  also,  the  ambassadors 
did  not  wish  to  speak  on  it  publicly.  They  proposed  that 
some  persons  should  be  chosen  to  confer  with  them.  Cleon 
then  was  open-mouthed  against  them,  declaring  that  he 
knew  they  never  meant  honestly.  The  ambassadors,  find- 
ing that  nothing  was  to  be  done  where  he  had  the  sway, 
departed. 

On  their  return,  the  Lacedaemonians  demanded  their 
ships  ;  but  the  Athenians,  under  the  frivolous  pretext  of  some 
attacks  having  been  made  on  the  wall,  refused  to  give  them 
back.  Operations  were  resumed  ;  all  day  long  two  triremes 
moved  in  opposite  directions  round  the  island ;  at  night 
all  the  ships,  which  were  now  increased  to  seventy, 
anchored  round,  except  on  the  outside,  when  the  wind  blew 
that  way.  But  the  Spartans  offering  rewards  to  any  free- 
man, and  liberty  to  any  helot,  who  would  convey  flour, 
cheese,  wine,  foe,  into  the  island,  boats  constantly  put  off 
from  the  coast  when  the  wind  blew  from  the  sea,  and  carried 
in  supplies.  Divers,  also,  putting  bruised  poppy-  and  hemp- 
seeds  into  bags,  swam  over  with  them  unobserved.  The 
Athenians,  meantime,  suffered  greatly  from  the  want  of  corn 
and  good  water,  and  of  space  to  encamp  in.  They  sent, 
therefore,  to  inform  the  people  of  the  state  of  affairs. 

At  Athens  the  people,  finding  that  the  island  still  held 
out,  began  to  repent  of  their  having  rejected  the  offer  of 


CAPTURE  OF  THE  SPARTANS.  205 

peace.  Cleon  asserted  that  all  the  accounts  they  got  were 
false.  The  envoys  then  proposed  that  commissioners  should 
be  sent  to  ascertain  the  truth.  Cleon  and  Theagenes  were 
named;  but  this  not  suiting  Cleon's  purpose,  he  cried  out, 
looking  at  Nicias,  one  of  the  generals  of  the  year,  that  if  the 
generals  were  men,  the  island  would  soon  be  taken,  and 
that  if  he  was  in  command,  he  would  take  it.  Nicias  offered 
to  give  him  any  troops  he  pleased.  Cleon,  thinking  he  was 
not  in  earnest,  accepted  the  offer,  but  finding  it  was  no  joke, 
he  hung  back,  saying  that  he  was  not  the  general.  Nicias 
pressed  his  offer,  taking  the  people  to  witness,  who,  fond 
of  mischief,  as  they  always  were,  the  more  Cleon  declined, 
the  more  they  urged  Nicias  to  give  him  the  command. 
Finding  he  could  not  escape,  he  resumed  his  blustering,  and 
saying  that  he  only  required  the  Lemnians  and  Imbrians, 
and  the  ^Enian  peltasts,*  who  were  then  at  Athens,  and 
four  hundred  bowmen,  declared  that  within  twenty  days  he 
would  slay  the  Lacedaemonians,  or  bring  them  all  prisoners 
to  Athens.  The  people  laughed ;  the  wiser  sort  were 
pleased,  expecting,  says  Thucydides,,"  one  of  two  good 
things  ;  that  they  should  get  the  Lacedaemonians,  or,  what 
was  still  better,  get  rid  of  Cleon." 

Cleon  set  sail,  having  prudently  had  Demosthenes  ap- 
pointed to  be  hiscolleague.  On  his  arrival,  when  negotia- 
tion had  been  fruitlessly  tried,  all  the  disposable  troops  were 
landed  in  the  night  on  Sphacteria,  and  after  a  severe  con- 
flict, in  which  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  Lacedaemo- 
nians were  slain,  the  remainder  craved  permission  to  send 
to  consult  their  friends  on  the  shore.  The  Athenians  re- 
fused, but  sent  a  herald  themselves,  and  a  Lacedaemonian 
came,  desiring  them  to  consult  for  themselves,  provided 
they  did  nothing  disgraceful.  They  then  surrendered,  being 
two  hundred  and  ninety-two  in  number,  and  Cleon   actually 


*  The  Peltasts,  so  named  from  the  pelta,  or  target  which  they  bore, 
were  a  kind  of  light  troops,  originally,  it  would  seem,  peculiar  to  the 
Thracians.     They  gradually  came  into  use  among  the  Greeks. 

18 


206  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

entered  the  Piraeus  with  them  within  the  twenty  days. 
The  captives  were  laid  in  chains,  and  it  was  formally  de- 
clared that  they  should  be  put  to  death  if  ever  the  Lacedae- 
monians invaded  Attica. 

Nothing  ever  caused  such  surprise  in  Greece  as  this  event, 
for  it  was  the  universal  opinion  that  the  Spartans  would  die 
sooner  than  surrender  their  arms.  At  Sparta  the  uneasiness 
was  great;  members  of  some  of  the  chief  families  were 
among  the  captives  ;  and  the  Messenians,  who  were  now 
placed  at  Pylos,  plundered  the  country,  and  afforded  a  ref- 
uge to  the  runaway  Helots.  They  were  therefore  most 
anxious  for  peace  ;  but  the  Athenian  people  were  too  much 
elated  to  listen  to  any  propositions. 


CHAPTER  V* 

SECOND  MASSACRE  AT  CORCYRA. ATTEMPT  ON  MEGARA. 

BATTLE  OF  DELION. BRASIDAS  IN  THRACE. BATTLE  OF 

AMPHIPOLIS,  AND   DEATH  OF  BRASIDAS  AND  CLEON. 

PEACE  OF  NICIAS. 

Eurymedon  and  Sophocles  now  sailed  from  Pylos  to  Cor- 
cyra,  and  debarking  their  troops,  joined  in  an  attack  on 
the  exiles.  They  stormed  their  fort  on  Istone  :  the  exiles 
then  fled  to  a  higher  position,  where  they  capitulated,  giving 
themselves  up  to  the  Athenians,  and  leaving  their  auxiliaries 
to  their  fate.  The  Athenian  generals  set  them  on  the  Isle 
of  Ptychia  till  they  could  take  them  to  Athens,  declaring, 
that  if  any  of  them  attempted  to  escape,  all  should  be  held 
guilty  of  breach  of  treaty. 

The  leaders  of  the  Demos  feared  that  their  enemies  might 
escape  their  vengeance,  and  they  formed  a  diabolical  plan  to 

*  Thuc.  iv.  46,  to  the  end ;  v.  1—24.    Diod.  xii.  65—74.  Plut.  Nicias. 


SECOND    MASSACRE    AT    CORCYRA.  207 

intrap  them.  They  sent  pretended  friends  into  the  island  to 
tell  some  of  them  that  the  Athenian  generals  intended  to  give 
them  up  to  the  people,  and  advising  them  to  fly  in  a  vessel 
which  was  prepared.  The  exiles  fell  into  the  snare,  were 
taken  in  the  act  of  escaping,  and  all  were  then  given  up  to 
the  people.  They  were  shut  up  in  a  large  building,  and 
taken  out  in  parties  of  twenty,  bound  together.  These 
passed  between  two  rows  of  armed  men,  each  of  whom,  as  he 
recognized  his  enemy,  struck  and  wounded  him.  Sixty  had 
thus  perished  before  the  rest  learned  the  fate  that  awaited 
them.  When  they  did,  they  called  on  the  Athenians  to  come 
and  put  them  to  death,  declaring  that  they  would  not  go  out, 
or  suffer  any  one  to  come  in.  The  people  made  no  attempt 
to  burst  the  doors,  but  getting  up  and  stripping  off  the  roof, 
shot  arrows  and  threw  down  the  tiles  on  them.  Those 
within,  seeing  no  means  of  escape  or  defence,  hastened  to 
put  an  end  to  their  lives,  some  with  the  arrows  shot  at  them, 
others  strangling  themselves  with  the  cords  of  the  beds  or 
with  their  garments,  which  they  had  torn  up.  Night  came 
on  :  next  morning  all  were  dead,  and  their  bodies  were  piled 
on  carts  and  drawn  out  of  the  town.  All  the  women  who 
had  been  in  the  fort  were  made  slaves.  With  this  bloody 
butchery  ended  the  sedition  of  Corcyra,  for  the  aristocratic 
party  was  now  extinct.  The  Athenian  commanders  having 
calmly  witnessed  this  last  act  of  the  tragedy,  proceeded  to 
Sicily. 

In  the  spring  of  the  following  year,  (01.  89,  1,)  an  Athe- 
nian fleet  and  army  under  Nicias  reduced  the  Island  of  Cy- 
thera,  on  the  coast  of  Laconia.  Nicias,  having  made  some 
plundering  descents  on  the  coast,  sailed  to  Thyrea,  where 
the  remnant  of  the  unfortunate  ^Eginetes  were  dwelling  : 
he  attacked,  took,  and  plundered  the  town,  and  brought  the 
inhabitants  captives  to  Athens,  where  they  were  all  put  to 
death  by  a  decree  of  the  people. 

The  Athenians  had  two  years  before  taken  the  Island  of 
Minoa,  off  the  port  of  Megara,  and  twice  every  year  they 
sent  out  a  force  to  plunder  the  country.     The  ravages  com- 


208  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

mitted  by  the  Megarian  exiles  who  held  Pegae  were  still 
more  harassing,  and  the  people  began  to  talk  of  coming  to 
an  accommodation  with  them.  The  exiles,  we  are  to  ob- 
serve, were  the  aristocrats ;  and  Megara  forms  the  rather 
singular  exception  of  a  democracy  at  enmity  with  Athens ; 
but  original  hatred  and  Doric  descent,  perhaps,  were  stronger 
than  political  resemblance.  The  popular  leaders,  now  fear- 
ing that,  if  the  exiles  returned,  exile,  if  not  worse,  might 
be  their  own  lot,  made  secret  proposals  to  surrender  the  city 
to  the  Athenian  generals.  As  there  was  a  Peloponnesian 
garrison  in  Megara,  and  another  at  the  port  of  Nisaea,  which 
was  eight  stadia  distant,  it  was  arranged  that  the  Athenians 
should  be  put  in  possession  of  the  long  walls  which  con- 
nected them.  Additional  troops  came  secretly  from  Athens, 
and  having  taken  the  walls  and  cut  off  the  communication 
between  Nisaea  and  the  city,  whence  the  garrison  drew  their 
supplies,  the  former  surrendered ;  but  the  plan  for  taking  the 
city  miscarried. 

Brasidas,  who  was  now  at  Corinth,  on  his  way  to  Thrace, 
as  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  taking  of  the  walls  of  Megara, 
having  sent  to  summon  the  Boeotians  to  join  him  at  the  foot 
of  Mount  Geraneia,  set  out  with  his  own  troops  and  three 
thousand  seven  hundred  hoplites  from  Corinth,  Sicyon,  and 
Phliiis.  The  Athenian  generals,  deeming  it  imprudent  to 
risk  an  action  against  a  superior  force,  retired,  leaving  a 
garrison  in  Nisaea.  Brasidas  was  admitted  into  the  city, 
where  the  oligarchic  party  had  now  gotten  the  upper  hand. 
After  his  departure,  the  principal  friends  of  the  Athenians, 
aware  that  they  were  known,  quitted  the  city ;  the  exiles 
at  Pegae  were  then  recalled  on  their  solemn  oath  to  bear  no 
malice.  As  they  were  the  chief  men  of  the  state,  they  soon 
obtained  the  highest  offices  ;  and  having  ordered  a  general 
muster  of  the  people  in  arms,  they  selected  about  one  hun- 
dred of  their  enemies,  and  forcing  the  people  to  condemn 
them  on  a  charge  of  treason,  put  them  all  to  death.  The 
government  then  became  a  narrow  oligarchy. 

An  opportunity  now  presented  itself  to  the   Athenians  of 


BATTLE    OF    DELION.  209 

getting  a  footing  in  Bceotia  also.  The  democratic  exiles 
and  their  partisans  in  the  towns  planned  a  rising,  and  pro- 
posed to  put  the  town  of  Siphae,  on  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  and 
Chaeroneia  into  the  hands  of  the  Athenians,  who  were  also 
to  enter  the  Tanagraic  territory,  and  raise  a  fort  at  a  temple 
of  Apollo  named  Delion.  The  two  expeditions  were  to  be 
simultaneous,  and  Bceotia  was  to  be  invaded  east  and  west 
on  the  same  day.  Demosthenes  therefore  sailed  with  forty 
triremes  to  Naupactus.  Hippocrates,  the  other  general,  re- 
mained at  Athens. 

The  whole  plan,  however,  proved  a  failure  :  the  Boeotian 
governments  had  gotten  information;  and  when  in  the  au- 
tumn Demosthenes  appeared  before  Siphae,  he  found  it  so 
strongly  garrisoned  that  he  feared  to  make  any  attempt  on 
it.  Hippocrates,  who  should  have  invaded  Tanagra  at  the 
same  time,  and  thus  divided  the  force  of  the  Boeotians,  did 
not  leave  Athens  till  some  days  later.  On  coming  to  Delion, 
he  threw  up  in  all  haste  a  ditch  and  wall  round  the  temple, 
secured  with  wooden  towers.  The  work  was  begun  on  the 
third  and  finished  on  the  fifth  day  from  their  setting  out 
from  Athens.  He  then  prepared  to  lead  his  army  home, 
leaving  a  garrison  in  the  place.  Meantime  the  Boeotians 
had  arrived  at  Tanagra  from  Siphae.  A  council  of  the  Bce- 
otarchs  was  held.  As  the  Athenians  were  now  ten  stadia 
from  Delion,  and,  consequently,  off  Boeotian  ground,  the 
other  Boeotarchs  refused  to  attack  them;  but  Pagondas, 
one  of  the  two  Theban  Boeotarchs,  addressing  the  soldiers, 
engaged  them  to  pursue  and  attack  the  Athenians.  It  was 
now  near  evening.  Hippocrates,  who  was  at  Delion,  sent 
word  to  his  men  to  get  ready  for  action,  and  he  soon  joined 
them  himself.  The  Boeotians  formed  at  the  foot  of  the  hill 
on  the  other  side  of  which  the  Athenians  were.  They  had 
6000  hoplites,  above  10,000  light  troops,  1000  horse,  and 
400  peltasts.  The  Theban  hoplites  were  drawn  up  twenty- 
five  deep,  the  others  variously.  The  Athenians  had  also 
6000  hoplites,  which  they  drew  up  eight  deep  ;  their  light 
troops  were  more  numerous   than   those  of  the  Boeotians, 

18*  A  A 


210  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

but  worse  armed,  for  as  the  expedition  had  been  what  was 
called pandemious,  (navd^uei^)  all  kinds,  citizens,  metcecs,  and 
strangers,  were  on  it. 

The  Boeotians  charged  down  the  hill  at  a  rapid  pace;  the 
Athenians  advanced  at  the  same  pace  to  meet  them  ;  the 
combat  was  close  and  obstinate ;  the  Boeotians  at  length 
were  beaten  on  the  left,  but  they  had  the  advantage  on  the 
right,  where  the  Thebans  were  posted.  Pagondas  then 
sent  a  party  of  horse  round  the  hill  to  fall  on  the  victorious 
Athenian  wing,  and  the  Athenians,  taking  them  for  another 
army,  lost  courage  and  gave  way.  The  rout  now  was  gen- 
eral ;  some  fled  to  Delion,  some  to  Oropus,  others  to 
Mount  Parnes.  The  Boeotian  horse  and  the  Locrians,  who 
came  up  at  the  moment  of  the  rout,  pursued  the  fugitives ; 
but  night  came  on,  and  the  greater  part  easily  escaped. 
The  Athenians  lost  their  general,  one  thousand  hoplites, 
and  a  great  number  of  their  light  troops. 

The  Boeotians,  having  raised  a  trophy,  retired  to  Tanagra, 
and  on  the  Athenians  sending  to  demand  the  bodies  of  the 
slain,  refused  to  restore  them,  on  account,  they  said,  of  the 
profanation  of  the  temple.  Being  reen forced  from  Corinth 
and  Megara,  they  attacked  the  fortification  at  Delion,  against 
which  they  employed  a  novel  kind  of  machine.  They  sawed 
a  long  beam  lengthwise,  and  having  hollowed  each  piece, 
put  it  together  again  so  as  to  form  a  tube.  Atone  end  they 
hung  a  pot,  into  which  an  iron  pipe  went  from  the  wooden 
tube.  This  machine  was  conveyed  on  wagons  to  a  part  of 
the  wall  which  had  been  built  chiefly  of  timber  and  vine- 
wood.  They  then  applied  great  bellows  to  the  other  end 
of  the  tube  and  blew  into  the  pot,  which  was  filled  with  sul- 
phur, pitch,  and  live  coal.  The  flame  thus  raised  caught 
the  wall,  from  which  the  defenders  were  forced  to  retire. 
The  place  was  taken  :  the  Athenians,  leaving  two  hundred 
prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  victors,  made  their  escape  to 
their  ships.  When  the  Athenian  herald  came  again  to  claim 
the  dead  bodies,  they  were  no  longer  refused. 

Brasidas  was  now  in  Thrace.     Perdiccas  and   the  dial- 


BRASIDAS    IN    THRACE.  211 

cidians,  seeing  the  Athenians  so  successful  every  where,  and 
fearing  for  their  own  safety,  had  sent  to  Lacedremon  to  im- 
plore aid ;  and  the  government  there,  aware  of  the  advantage 
of  creating  employment  for  the  Athenians,  resolved  at  once 
to  send  their  only  man  of  enterprise  to  Thrace.  But  fear- 
ing, on  account  of  the  Helots,  to  diminish  their  force  at 
home,  they  had  recourse  to  a  most  atrocious  expedient  for 
their  security.  Knowing  that  the  bravest  and  most  high- 
spirited  of  them  would  be  the  most  likely  to  revolt,  they 
made  proclamation  for  such  Helots  as  thought  they  had 
shown  most  desert  in  arms  to  come  forward  and  receive 
their  liberty  as  a  reward.  About  two  thousand  were  se- 
lected, who,,  as  being  set  free,  went  round  to  the  temples 
crowned  with  garlands.  Shortly  afterwards  they  all  disap- 
peared, no  one  knew  how;  and  the  government,  then  more 
at  ease,  sent  off  seven  hundred  Lacedaemonians  with  Bras- 
idas:  one  thousand  hoplites  more  were  hired  for  him  in 
Peloponnesus.  Having  relieved  Megara,  he  went  on  through 
Boeotia.  In  Thessaly  he  experienced  some  opposition,  which 
he  overcame  by  address,  and  he  reached  Macedonia  in  safety. 
He  proceeded  thence  to  Chalcidice,  and  by  his  vaunts  of  the 
power  and  assurance  of  the  pure  views  of  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians, he  induced  the  people  of  Acanthus  and  Stageirus  to 
revolt  from  Athens.  In  the  winter,  he  set  out  with  his  own 
troops,  and  some  of  those  of  his  allies,  and  came  to  Amphip- 
olis  on  the  Strymon,  which  city  he  induced  to  surrender ; 
and  he  then,  without  loss  of  time,  hastened  down  the  river 
to  try  and  gain  the  port  of  Eion  at  its  mouth,  and  thus  close 
up  the  river.  But  the  historian  Thucydides,  who  command- 
ed a  fleet  in  these  waters,  had  secured  it.  The  active  Bras- 
idas  then  sped  away  to  the  peninsula  of  Mount  Athos,  and 
gained  over  most  of  its  towns.  Quitting  this,  he  entered 
the  adjacent  peninsula  of  Sithonia,  and  by  the  aid  of  a  party 
within  the  walls,  gained  the  town  of  Torone.  He  spent  the 
remainder  of  the  winter  securing  the  places  he  had  already 
acquired  and  devising  measures  to  acquire  more. 

The  ninth  year   of  the  war  (Ol.  89,  2)   opened  with  the 


212  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

conclusion  of  a  truce  for  a  year,  for  the  pride  of  the  Athe- 
nians was  somewhat  lowered  by  the  reverses  they  had  met 
with,  and  the  Spartans  postponed  every  thing  to  their  anx- 
iety for  the  safety  of  their  friends  and  kinsmen.  It  was 
agreed  that  each  party  should  remain  as  they  were,  and 
that  the  Peloponnesians  should,  during  the  truce,  send  no 
long  ships  to  sea. 

Meantime  the  town  of  Scione,  in  the  third  peninsula  Pal- 
lene,  revolted ;  and  Brasidas  was  devising  measures  to  gain 
over  Mende  and  Potidaea  also,  when  commissioners  came  to 
inform  him  of  the  truce.  The  Athenian,  asserting,  as  was 
the  truth,  that  the  revolt  had  not  taken  place  till  after  the 
conclusion  of  the  truce,  insisted  that  Scione  should  not  be 
included  in  it.  Brasidas  refused  to  give  it  up.  Word  was 
sent  to  Athens :  the  people  were  furious  that  their  very 
island  subjects,  as  they  esteemed  them,  should  thus  revolt, 
relying  on  the  land  force  of  Lacedaemon.  The  Spartans 
remonstrated  in  vain  :  Cleon  caused  a  decree  to  be  passed 
to  take  the  town  and  slaughter  the  people  of  Scione. 

Mende  now  revolted,  and  Brasidas  did  not  hesitate  to 
receive  it  into  alliance ;  and  knowing  that  an  Athenian  force 
was  coming,  he  made  the  Mendaeans  and  Scionaeans  send 
their  wives  and  children  to  Olynthus.  He  sent  them  four 
hundred  of  his  hoplites  and  three  hundred  Chalcidian  pel- 
tasts  to  aid  them  in  their  defence,  and  then  set  out  with  the 
rest  of  his  forces  to  join  King  Perdiccas  in  an  expedition 
against  Arrhidaeus,  prince  of  Lyncestis.  While  he  was  away, 
an  Athenian  fleet  of  fifty  triremes,  under  Nicias  and  Nicos- 
tratus,  and  carrying  one  thousand  hoplites,  six  hundred 
archers,  one  thousand  Thracian  auxiliaries,  and  a  good  body 
of  peltasts  of  the  allies,  arrived  at  Potidaea.  They  sailed 
thence  to  Mende,  and  having  vainly  endeavored  to  dislodge 
the  Lacedaemonian  commander  from  the  post  he  had  occu- 
pied, they  proceeded  to  Scione,  where  they  took  the  sub- 
urbs at  the  first  assault.  They  then  divided  their  force, 
Nicostratus  leading  on  half  of  it  against  Mende. 

It  is  almost  needless  to  repeat,  what  the  reader  must  be 


BRASIDAS    IN    THRACE.  213 

now  well  aware  of,  that  in  every  town  there  was  an  Athe- 
nian party  and  an  opposite  one,  i.  e.  a  democratic  and  an 
aristocratic  one.  So  it  was  in  Mende ;  and  Polydamidas, 
the  Spartan  commander,  having  offended  one  of  the  former, 
a  tumult  arose,  in  which  the  gates  were  thrown  open  to  the 
Athenians,  and  the  Lacedaemonians  and  their  friends  were 
forced  to  take  refuge  on  the  Acropolis,  whence  the  Lace- 
daemonians afterwards  forced  their  way  to  Scione.  On 
this  occasion  the  Athenians  acted  more  moderately  than 
they  were  wont ;  they  made  no  inquiry,  and  merely  put  the 
government  on  its  former  footing. 

Perdiccas,  who  was  offended  with  Brasidas,  had  been  in 
secret  negotiation  with  the  Athenian  commanders,  and  he 
now  renewed  his  alliance  with  Athens.  At  his  instance  the 
Thessalians  refused  a  passage  to  a  body  of  troops  coming  to 
reenforce  Brasidas. 

On  the  expiration  of  the  truce,  (01.  89,  3,)  Cleon,  elate 
with  his  success  at  Pylos,  had  himself  chosen  one  of  the 
generals  for  the  year.  Being  resolved  to  measure  himself 
with  the  renowned  Brasidas,  he  took  the  command  of  an 
expedition  to  Thrace.  He  sailed  with  a  fleet  of  thirty  tri" 
remes,  carrying  twelve  hundred  hoplites,  three  hundred 
horsemen,  and  a  good  number  of  the  allies.  Coming  to 
Scione,  he  took  with  him  some  of  the  hoplites  who  were 
blockading  that  town :  he  sailed  thence  to  a  port  near 
Torone,  and  learning  that  Brasidas  was  not  there,  and  that 
the  garrison  was  weak,  he  attacked  it  suddenly  by  sea  and 
land.  He  took  the  town,  sold  the  women  and  children  for 
slaves,  and  sent  the  men,  seven  hundred  in  number,  prison- 
ers to  Athens,  where,  contrary  to  what  one  might  have  ex- 
pected, not  only  the  Peloponnesians  but  the  Toronaeans  were 
spared,  and  the  latter  were  afterwards  exchanged  by  the 
Olynthians. 

Cleon,  without  loss  of  time,  sailed  to  the  Strymon,  and 
having  sent  to  summon  Perdiccas  to  his  aid,  and  to  invite 
Polles,  king  of  the  Thracian  tribe  of  the  Odomantes,  to  come 
with  as  many  Thracians  as  he  could  hire,  took  his  post  at 


214  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Eion.  Brasidas,  who  had  hastened  to  the  defence  of  Am- 
phipolis,  stationed  himself  on  the  Cerdylion,  a  hill  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  river,  a  short  distance  from  that  town. 
His  whole  force  consisted  of  2000  hoplites  and  300  horse- 
men, 1000  Myrcinian  and  Chalcidian  peltasts,  1500  Thra- 
cian  mercenaries,  and  the  men  of  the  Edonians.  Having 
left  the  greater  part  to  garrison  the  town,  he  had  with  him 
on  the  Cerdylion  about  fifteen  hundred  men. 

Cleon's  soldiers,  who  despised  their  leader,  and  served  un- 
willingly under  him,  soon  began  to  grow  turbulent  at  his 
inaction.  To  appease  them,  he  led  them  towards  the  town, 
but  with  no  intention  whatever  of  fighting,  and  took  up  a 
position  on  a  strong  eminence  in  front  of  it.  Brasidas,  see- 
ing this,  quitted  the  Cerdylion,  and  reentered  the  town.  As 
his  troops,  though  equal  in  number,  were  far  inferior  in 
quality  to  those  of  Cleon,  he  would  not  risk  a  general  action, 
hoping  to  outgeneral  his  vain  and  ignorant  opponent.  Ob- 
serving the  negligence  of  the  enemy,  he  selected  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men,  with  whom  he  resolved  to  make  a  sortie 
at  one  of  the  gates,  and  fall  on  them,  while  a  Spartan  officer 
named  Clearidas  should  lead  out  the  troops  at  another  to 
support  him. 

Cleon,  on  approaching  to  take  a  view  of  the  town,  saw 
plainly  within  it  Brasidas  sacrificing  at  the  temple  of  Athena, 
and  the  feet  of  men  and  horses  ready  to  issue  were  visible 
under  the  gates.  Fearing  to  engage  before  his  allies  came 
up,  he  sent  orders  to  his  army  to  fall  back  to  Eion,  the  left 
wing  leading.  He  then  wheeled  his  right  wing  so  as  to 
expose  the  right  sides  of  the  men  to  the  enemy.  Brasidas, 
seeing  his  advantage,  rushed  out  of  the  town,  and  fell  on 
the  centre  of  the  disordered  Athenians.  Clearidas  issued 
at  the  same  moment  from  another  gate.  The  Athenian  left 
wing  broke  away,  and  fled  to  Eion.  Brasidas  directed  his 
efforts  against  the  right  wing;  but  here  an  unknown  hand 
gave  him  a  mortal  wound,  and  his  men  conveyed  him  away 
to  the  town,  the  Athenians  remaining  ignorant  of  what  had 
befallen.     Cleon,  who  had  resolved  not  to  fight,  fled  away  ; 


PEACE    OF    NICIAS.  215 

but  he  was  intercepted  and  slain  by  a  Myrcinian  peltast. 
The  Athenian  right  wing,  having  seized  an  eminence,  de- 
fended themselves  bravely  against  the  hoplites  ;  but  when 
the  horse  and  peltasts  came  up,  and  they  were  assailed  by 
missiles,  they  turned  and  fled  as  best  they  could  to  Ei'on. 
The  loss  of  the  Athenians  was  about  seven  hundred,  that  of 
the  victors  only  seven  men. 

Brasidas  was  buried  at  the  public  expense  in  front  of  the 
agora  in  Amphipolis.  All  the  allies  followed  his  corpse  in 
arms.  His  tomb  was  fenced  in  as  a  Heroon,  and  annual 
games  and  sacrifices  in  his  honor  were  appointed.  All 
the  monuments  relating  to  Hagnon,  the  original  Athenian 
founder,  were  destroyed,  and  Brasidas,  the  deliverer  from 
Athenian  tyranny,  was  regarded  as  the  true  founder  of  Am- 
phipolis. 

This  battle  removed  the  two  great  obstacles  to  peace, 
Cleon  and  Brasidas,  for  the  former  knew  that  in  a  time  of 
repose  his  evil  deeds  would  be  more  apparent,  and  his  ac- 
cusations of  others  more  strictly  examined  :  the  latter  was 
aware  that  his  fame  depended  on  war,  and  that  in  peace  he 
would  be  but  an  ordinary  Spartan.  Nicias,  who  now  pre- 
dominated in  Athens,  was  wealthy,  and  loved  peace;  the 
Spartan  King  Pleistoanax,  who,  after  an  exile  of  nineteen 
years,  had  been  recalled  at  the  command  of  the  oracle,  had 
also  reasons  to  be  desirous  of  repose.  The  Athenians  were 
humbled  by  their  late  reverses,  and  feared  the  falling  off  of 
more  of  their  subjects.  The  Lacedaemonians  had  found  that 
their  plan  of  invading  Attica  had  produced  no  result;  they 
had  not,  as  they  had  expected,  been  able  to  become  formi- 
dable at  sea;  the  enemy  had  even  a  post  in  their  country  and 
on  their  coast,  whence  they  committed  ravages  on  their  ter 
ritory,  and  where  they  gave  refuge  to  the  runaway  Helots. 
They  were  in  hourly  apprehension  of  a  rising  of  the  remain- 
ing Helots  ;  the  truce,  moreover,  with  Argos,  was  near  ex- 
piring, and  the  Argives  refused  to  renew  it  unless  Cynuria 
was  restored  ;  they  knew  that  they  were  no  match  for  them 
and   the   Athenians  together,  and  that  many  of  the  Pelopon- 


216  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

nesian  states  would  join  the  Argives.  Above  all,  they  were 
anxious  to  obtain  the  Spartans  who  were  prisoners  at  Athens. 

With  these  dispositions  on  both  sides,  it  was  easy  to  con- 
clude a  peace.  At  the  commencement  of  the  following 
spring,  (Ol.  89,  4,)  the  Thebans,  Corinthians,  Megarians, 
and  Eleians  alone  dissenting,  a  truce  for  fifty  years  was 
agreed  on.  Both  parties  were  to  restore  all  their  conquests, 
but  the  Athenians  were  to  retain  Nisaea,  as  the  Thebans 
would  not  give  back  Platasa  ;  Amphipolis,  being  an  Athenian 
colony,  was  to  be  restored  ;  the  other  towns  which  had  re- 
volted were  to  be  independent,  paying  to  Athens  the  tribute 
laid  on  by  Aristeides.  Scione  was  left  to  its  fate,  but  the 
safety  of  its  Peloponnesian  garrison  was  stipulated.  The 
prisoners  on  both  sides  were  to  be  set  at  liberty. 

The  Lacedaemonians,  it  is  evident,  had  attended  only  to 
their  own  interests,  and  their  allies  were  justly  displeased. 
Fearing,  therefore,  a  junction  of  them  with  the  Argives,  they 
proposed  to  the  Athenians  not  merely  a  truce,  but  an  alliance 
for  fifty  years.  The  alliance  was  accepted ;  and  this  peace 
and  alliance,  called  the  Peace  of  Nicias,  terminated  the  first 
part  of  the  Peloponnesian  War. 

Shortly  afterwards  the  Athenians  took  Scione.  They  put 
all  the  men  to  death,  made  slaves  of  the  women  and  children, 
and  gave  the  houses  and  lands  to  the  Plataeans. 


CHAPTER  VI.* 


POLITICS  OP  GREECE. WAR  IN  PELOPONNESUS. BATTLE 

OP  MANTINEIA. REVOLUTION   AT  ARGOS. BARBARITY 

OF  THE  ATHENIANS  AT  MELOS. 

When  the  alliance  was  formed  between  the  Spartans  and 
the  Athenians,  the  other  Peloponnesian  deputies  who  had 

*  Thuc.  v.  25  to  the  end.     Diod.  xii.  75—80.     Plut.  Nicias  and  Alci- 
biadcs. 


POLITICS    OF    GREECE.  217 

been  summoned  to  Sparta  returned  home  ;  but  those  of  the 
Corinthians  went  straight  to  Argos,  and  proposed  to  the 
leading  men  there  the  formation  of  a  new  Peloponnesian 
confederacy,  of  which  Argos  should  be  the  head,  in  opposi- 
tion to  Lacedsemon.  This  proposal  met  a  ready  acceptance  ; 
the  necessary  measures  were  taken ;  and  the  alliance  was, 
ere  long,  joined  by  the  Mantineans,  Eleians,  and  the  Chal- 
cidians  of  Thrace.  The  Boeotians  and  Megarians  were  also 
rather  inclined  to  it.  The  Lacedaemonians,  alarmed  at  its 
extent,  sought  then  to  join  the  confederacy  and  become  the 
head  of  it ;  but  their  plans  for  that  end  all  failed. 

The  Boeotians  still  retained  their  Athenian  prisoners,  and 
the  fortress  of  Panacton  on  Mount  Cithaeron  in  the  Attic 
territory,  and  the  Athenians  would  not  give  up  Pylos  till 
these  were  restored.  They  had,  however,  at  the  desire  of 
the  Spartans,  removed  the  Messenians  and  Helots,  and  gar- 
risoned it  with  their  own  troops.  The  Boeotians  would  give 
up  their  prisoners  only  on  condition  of  the  Lacedaemonians 
forming  an  alliance  with  them  exactly  similar  to  that  with 
the  Athenians;  and  this,  though  contrary  to  an  article  of 
the  late  treaty,  they  agreed  to.  The  prisoners  were  now 
given  up  and  conducted  by  them  to  Athens;  but  as  the  Boe- 
otians had  razed  the  fort  of  Panacton,  the  Athenians  refused 
to  restore  Pylos. 

There  was  a  party  at  Athens  eager  for  war.  Its  head  was 
Alcibiades,  son  of  Cleinias,  a  young  man  of  great  personal 
beauty  and  talent,  of  immense  wealth,  of  noble  birth,  tracing 
his  pedigree  on  the  father's  side  up  to  Ajax  son  of  Telamon, 
and  being  an  Alcmaeonid  by  his  mother  the  daughter  of 
Megacles.  Pericles  was  his  relative  and  guardian,  the  phi- 
losopher Socrates  his  friend  and  instructor.  But  his  morals 
were  corrupt,  and  his  conduct  dissolute. 

Alcibiades  was  piqued  that  the  Spartans  had  negotiated 
with  Nicias  anrl  Laches,  neglecting  him  on  account  of  his 
youth.  He  had  also  a  private  grudge  against  them.  His 
family  had  been  originally  guest-friends  of  their  state,  but 
his  grandfather  of  the  same  name,  a  friend  of  Cleisthenes, 

19  BB 


218  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

had  publicly  renounced  it.  Alcibiades,  wishing  to  renew  it, 
had  been  very  kind  to  the  prisoners  from  Sphacteria,  but  the 
Lacedaemonians  had  taken  no  heed  of  his  advances,  and  he 
deemed  the  present  a  good  occasion  for  making  them  feel 
his  resentment. 

The  Argives,  when  they  heard  of  the  alliance  between 
Lacedasmon  and  Bceotia,  and  of  the  demolition  of  Panacton, 
thinking  that  this  was  done  with  the  consent  of  the  Athe- 
nians, and  fearing  that  they  should  have  the  whole  confede- 
racy against  them,  hastily  made  a  truce  for  fifty  years  with 
the  Lacedaemonians.  vUcibiades  now  came  forward  and  as- 
serted that  the  evident  object  of  the  Spartans  was  to  deprive 
the  Athenians  of  all  their  allies,  and  fall  upon  them  when 
thus  left  single.  He  at  the  same  time  sent  privately  to  Ar- 
gos,  desiring  an  embassy  to  come  from  thence,  and  from 
Elis  and  Mantineia,  to  invite  the  Athenians  to  join  their 
union.  The  Argives,  finding  there  had  been  no  ground  for 
their  suspicion  of  the  Athenians  having  joined  the  Boeotian 
alliance,  and  preferring  an  alliance  with  a  naval  power  whose 
form  of  government  was  the  same  as  their  own,  became  quite 
indifferent  about  the  truce  with  Sparta,  and  an  embassy,  as 
proposed,  soon  arrived  at  Athens.  The  Spartans  in  alarm 
sent  thither  also.  Their  envoys,  when  led  into  the  senate, 
declared  that  they  came  with  full  powers.  Alcibiades,  fear- 
ing tint,  if  they  were  to  say  so  to  the  people,  his  plans  would 
be  frustrated,  went  to  them,  and  pledged  himself,  if  they 
would  say  that  they  had  not  full  powers,  to  procure  the 
evacuation  of  Pylos,  and  settle  all  matters  to  their  satisfac- 
tion. They  assented,  and  on  being  asked  before  the  assem- 
bly, said  they  had  not  full  powers  to  treat.  Alcibiades  then 
exclaimed  most  violently  against  the  Spartan  bad  faith,  and 
the  people  were  on  the  point  of  voting  the  Argive  alliance, 
when  the  shock  of  an  earthquake  dissolved  the  assembly. 

Next  day  Nicias,  finding  out  the  trick  that  had  been 
played,  proposed  that  envoys,  he  himself  to  be  one,  should 
be  sent  to  Sparta  to  demand  the  rebuilding  of  Panacton 
and  the  renunciation  of  the  Boeotian  alliance.     The  embassy 


WAR   IN    PELOPONNESUS.  219 

was  sent  accordingly,  but  to  no  purpose,  and  on  its  return 
Alcibiades  had  a  league  offensive  and  defensive  for  one 
hundred  years  formed  with  the  Argives,  Mantineans,  Elel- 
ans  and  their  allies.     (Ol.  90,  1.) 

The  Corinthians,  though  allies  of  Argos,  would  not  be- 
come so  with  their  hereditary  foes  the  Athenians  ;  their  en- 
mity to  the  Lacedaemonians  also  had  begun  to  cool,  and  they 
were  soon  again  their  allies.  Nothing  of  consequence  how- 
ever occurred,  and  the  next  year  (Ol.  90,  2)  Alcibiades, 
being  chosen  one  of  the  annual  generals,  passed  over  to  Ar- 
gos with  a  few  hoplites  and  archers,  and  went  through  the 
states  of  the  confederacy  regulating  all  matters.  At  his 
desire  the  Patraeans  in  Achaia  built  long  walls  from  their 
town  to  the  sea,  and  he  was  about  to  raise  a  fort  on  the 
Achaean  Rhion,  when  the  Corinthians  and  Sicyonians  came 
in  arms  and  prevented  him. 

As  the  little  state  of  Epidaurus  lay  conveniently  for  a 
direct  intercourse  between  Athens  and  Argos,  Alcibiades 
and  the  Argives  resolved  to  make  a  conquest  of  it.  Under 
pretext  that  the  Epidaurians  had  not  sent  a  victim,  as  they 
were  bound,  to  the  temple  of  the  Pythian  Apollo  in  Argolis, 
the  Argives  invaded  their  territory.  In  the  winter  the  La- 
cedaemonians sent  three  hundred  men  to  their  aid,  and  the 
following  summer,  (Ol.  90,  3,)  as  the  Epidaurians  were  now 
hard  pressed,  it  was  resolved  to  do  something  effectual  for 
their  relief.  Notice  was  sent  to  the  allies  to  send  their 
troops  to  Phlius.  Thither  came  from  Bceotia  five  thousand 
hoplites,  as  many  light  troops,  five  hundred  horse  and  five 
hundred  horse-footmen.*  Corinth  sent  two  thousand  hop- 
lites, the  others  according  to  their  ability  ;  the  Phliasians 
appeared  all  in  arms.  The  Lacedaemonians,  with  the  whole 
force  of  themselves  and  their  Helots,  (navdijpe',)  commanded 
by  King  Agis,  entered  the  valley-plain  of  Mantinea  and 
Tegea,  where  they  were  joined  by  the  Tegeates  and  their 
other  Arcadian   allies. 

*  "A  fimnoi.  They  were  light  troops  that  were  mingled  with  the 
horse. 


220 


HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 


The  Argives,  joined  by  the  Mantineans  and  three  thou- 
sand Eleian  hoplites,  took  a  position  at  Methydrion,  opposite 
the  Lacedaemonians.  In  the  night  Agis  silently  decamped, 
and  led  his  army  to  Phlius.  The  Argives,  finding  him  gone, 
returned  home,  and  then  posted  themselves  on  the  road  to 
Nemea,  the  usual  route  from  Phlius  to  Argos.  But  Agis 
divided  his  forces  ;  and  directing  the  Boeotians,  Megarians, 
and  Sicyonians  to  go  the  direct  way,  he  led  his  own  troops 
by  a  rugged  mountain  road  to  the  plain ;  and  by  a  similar 
mountain  road  the  Corinthians,  Phliasians,  and  Pellenians 
also  descended  into  the  plain  of  Argos. 

By  this  skilful  movement  the  Argive  army  was  surround- 
ed, and  as  the  enemies  were  greatly  superior  in  number,  it 
would  probably  have  been  defeated.  Aware  perhaps  of  this 
danger,  Thrasyllus,  one  of  the  generals,  and  Alciphron,  a 
guest-friend  of  Sparta,  went  to  Agis  just  as  the  armies  were 
about  to  engage,  and  told  him  that  the  Argives  were  willing 
to  submit  to  equity  and  to  maintain  peace ;  whereupon 
Agis,  of  his  own  sole  authority,  granted  a  truce  for  four 
months,  and  led  off  his  army.  The  allies  followed,  as  they 
were  bound,  but  they  murmured  at  a  certain  victory  being 
thus  thrown  away,  and  the  finest  army  ever  assembled  in 
Peloponnesus  being  obliged  to  separate  without  fighting. 
The  Argives,  on  their  side,  were  furious  against  those  who, 
as  they  thought,  had  prevented  their  destroying  the  Lace- 
daemonians, who  had  been  caught  between  their  army  and 
town.  Thrasyllus  had  a  narrow  escape  of  his  life,  and  his 
property  was  confiscated. 

An  Athenian  force  of  one  thousand  hoplites  and  three 
hundred  horse,  under  Laches  and  Nicostratus,  arrived  soon 
afterwards:  the  Argives  were  for  sending  them  away,  but 
their  allies  obliged  them  to  give  them  a  hearing;  and  Alci- 
biades,  who  had  hastened  thither,  maintaining  that  they 
had  no  right  to  make  a  truce  without  their  other  allies, 
and  showing  that  now  was  the  time  to  prosecute  the  war, 
excited  them  to  march  at  once  against  Orchomenus  in  Ar- 
cadia, where  the  Lacedaemonians  had   placed  the  hostages 


BATTLE    OF    MANTINEA.  221 

which  they  had  gotten  from  other  Arcadian  towns.  His 
arguments  prevailed ;  the  army  marched,  and  Orchomenus 
surrendered.  It  was  then  debated  what  should  next  be  done. 
The  Eleians  wished  them  to  march  against  Lepreon,  a  place 
of  which  the  Lacedaemonians  had  lately  deprived  them;  and 
on  their  refusal  they  separated  from  them  and  went  home. 
It  was  then  decided  to  proceed  to  Tegea,  where  they  had  a 
friendly  party. 

The  Spartans  had  been  also  incensed  with  the  conduct 
of  King  Agis,  and  were  about  to  punish  him,  when  he  en- 
treated and  obtained  a  stay  of  the  sentence  till  he  should 
try  to  retrieve  his  character.  He  now  set  forth  with  the 
whole  force  of  the  state,  and,  summoning  the  Arcadian  allies 
to  join  him  at  once,  sent  off  to  call  the  Corinthians  and  the 
more  distant  ones.  He  then  entered  and  began  to  ravage 
the  lands  of  Mantinea ;  the  Argive  army  came  and  took  a 
strong  position  opposite  to  him.  He  advanced  to  attack, 
them,  and  was  within  a  stone's  cast  of  them,  when  an  old 
Spartan  called  out  to  him  that  he  was  going  to  make  bad 
worse :  he  saw  his  error,  and  retired.  He  then  set  about 
tnrning  a  stream  to  injure  the  lands  of  the  Mantineans, 
hoping  thus  to  draw  the  enemy  from  their  strong  position. 
The  Argives  were  at  first  surprised  at  the  retreat  of  the  La- 
cedaemonians ;  but  when  they  saw  them  gone,  they  began, 
as  before,  to  accuse  their  generals  of  letting  them  escape. 
To  appease  them,  the  generals  led  them  down  into  the  plain 
to  follow  the  enemy.  Next  day,  as  the  Lacedaemonians  were 
returning  to  their  former  position,  they  saw  the  Argive  army 
in  order  of  battle  on  the  plain.  Their  consternation  exceed- 
ed any  they  had  ever  felt,  but  owing  to  their  excellent  disci- 
pline they  formed,  though  in  haste,  without  confusion.  The 
Scintes  *  occupied  the  left  wing ;  next  to  them  were  Brasi- 
das'  troops,  and  the  Neodamodes ;  then  the  Lacedaemonians 
in  the  order  of  their  lochi,  the  Arcadians  of  Heraea  and 
Maenalus,  and  on  the  right  wing  the  Tegeans  and  a   few 

*  The  people  of  Sciritis  on  the  borders  of  Arcadia. 

19* 


222  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Lacedaemonians ;  the  horse  were  at  either  extremity;  and 
they  moved  slowly  to  the  sound  of  numerous  flutes.  The 
Mantineans,  as  they  were  on  their  own  soil,  had  the  right 
wing  of  the  Argive  army;  the  other  Arcadians  and  one 
thousand  select  men,  who  formed  the  regular  army  of  Argos, 
were  next ;  then  came  the  remaining  Argives;  the  Athenians 
were  on  the  left,  supported  by  their  horse. 

Just  as  the  action  was  commencing,  Agis,  seeing  that  the 
Mantineans  stretched  beyond  his  left  wing,  sent  orders  to 
the  Scirites  and  JBrasidians  to  move  so  as  to  front  their  ex- 
tremity, and  he  directed  two  companies  (lochi)  from  the 
right  to  occupy  the  vacant  place ;  but  these  companies  did 
not  stir,  and  the  Mantineans  and  Argives,  falling  on  the 
troops  thus  isolated,  routed  and  pursued  them  to  their  bag- 
gage. In  the  centre,  where  Agis  himself  commanded,  the 
Lacedaemonians  were  completely  victorious.  The  Athenians 
on  the  left  were  now  surrounded,  and  but  for  the  support  of 
their  own  horse  and  that  Agis  directed  his  whole  army  to 
come  to  the  aid  of  the  defeated  left  wing,  they  would  have 
been  cut  to  pieces.  The  Athenians  then  retreated,  and 
the  Mantineans  and  select  Argives,  when  they  saw  the  entire 
strength  of  the  enemy  coming  against  them,  turned  and  fled. 
The  loss  was  not  so  great  as  it  would  otherwise  have  been, 
for  it  was  the  Spartan  rule  not  to  pursue  a  flying  foe.  The 
Argives  left  on  the  field  seven  hundred,  the  Mantineans  two 
hundred,  and  the  Athenians  also  two  hundred  and  their  two 
generals.  About  three  hundred  of  the  Lacedaemonians  fell: 
their  allies  scarcely  suffered  at  all.  This  battle,  the  greatest 
yet  fought  among  the  Greeks,  completely  restored  the  fame 
of  the  Lacedaemonians,  which  the  misfortune  in  Sphacteria 
and  their  usual  inertness  had  somewhat  sullied. 

A  more  important  result  was  the  complete  frustration  of 
Alcibiades'  grand  plan  of  a.  confederacy  under  Athens.  The 
oligarchic  pnrty  now  got  the  upper  hand  at  Argos,  and  when, 
at  the  end  of  the  year,  Agis,  in  concert  with  it,  led  his  army 
to  Tegea,  and  sent  thence  to  Argos  proposals  for  accommo- 
d  Ltion,  though  Alcibiades  was  there,  and  used  all  his  influ- 


REVOLUTION    AT    ARGOS.  223 

ence  to  the  contrary,  they  were  received,  and  an  alliance 
offensive  and  defensive  formed  between  the  two  states.  The 
Athenians  were  obliged  to  abandon  a  fort  they  had  raised  at 
Epidaurus;  the  Mantineans  made  peace  on  the  best  terms 
they  could ;  a  combined  Argive  and  Lacedaemonian  force 
dissolved  the  democracy  at  Sicyon ;  and  matters  were  reg- 
ulated in  Achaia  to  suit  Spartan  views.  An  alliance  was 
also  secretly  formed  with  Perdiccas  and  the  Chalcidians  of 
Thrace. 

Yet  this  state  of  things  did  not  continue.  Though  the 
democracy  was  dissolved  at  Argos,  the  democratic  party  was 
strong,  and  having  recovered  courage,  (Ol.  90,  4,)  they  took 
advantage  of  a  festival  at  Sparta,  and  after  a  smart  conflict 
defeated  and  expelled  the  oligarchs.  The  Lacedaemonians, 
who  had  put  off  their  feast  to  go  to  the  aid  of  their  friends, 
met  the  fugitives  at  Tegea,  who  urged  them  to  proceed,  as 
they  might  be  sure  of  victory  ;  but  they  went  back  to  con- 
clude their  festival.  Deputies  then  came  from  Argos;  the 
matter  was  referred  to  the  allies  who  were  present,  and  sen- 
tence given  against  the  people,  and  an  army  directed  to 
march  to  Argos  to  enforce  it.  The  Argives  applied  to  their 
old  friends  at  Athens ;  artisans  were  sent,  and  the  building 
of  walls  from  the  city  to  the  sea  —  the  bulwarks  of  democ- 
racy—  commenced.  Men,  women,  and  slaves  wrought  at 
the  walls ;  but  before  they  were  completed,  Agis  Jed  in  his 
army,  demolished  them,  took  and  destroyed  the  village  of 
Hysiae,  and  then  retired.  The  Argives,  in  their  turn,  en- 
tered and  ravaged  the  lands  of  the  Phliasians,  who  had  given 
refuge  to  the  exiles. 

The  next  year  (Ol.  91,  1)  Alcibiadescame  to  Argos  with 
twenty  ships ;  and  three  hundred  persons  suspected  of  fa- 
voring the  Spartan  interest  being  put  into  his  hands,  he 
placed  them  in  safe  keeping  in  the  isles  under  Athenian  do- 
minion. 

The  Athenian  government,  probably  instigated  by  Alci- 
biades,  next  sent  a  fleet  and  army  against  the  Isle  of  Melos, 
whose  people,  a  Lacedaemonian  colony,  were  guilty  of  the 
crime,  in  their  eyes,  of  desiring  peace  and  independence. 


224  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

At  the  commencement  of  this  war  they  had  joined  neither 
party  ;  in  the  sixth  year,  provoked  by  the  wanton  invasion 
of  their  island  by  the  Athenians,  they  had  exercised  hostil- 
ities against  them;  but  they  had  of  course  been  included  in 
the  peace,  and  they  are  not  charged  with  having  given  any 
offence. 

The  Athenians,  before  they  commenced  operations,  held 
a  conference  with  the  leading  men  at  Melos,  in  which,  put- 
ting forth  no  right  but  that  of  the  stronger,  they  required 
them  to  become  their  subjects.  The  Melians,  in  reliance  on 
Lacedasmon,  refused  to  submit :  their  town  was  then  block- 
aded by  sea  and  land,  and  after  a  defence  of  some  months, 
they  were  obliged  to  surrender  unconditionally.  All  the 
grown  males  were  put  to  death,  the  women  and  children 
made  slaves,  the  lands  divided  among  Athenian  colonists. 

This  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  unprovoked  and  inde- 
fensible pieces  of  barbarity  in  Grecian  history.  Its  guilt  is 
enhanced  by  the  recollection  that  there  was  no  brutal  Cleon 
now  dominant  at  Athens  to  urge  the  people  on  to  blood, 
but  that  the  soul  of  the  Athenian  councils  was  the  ward  of 
Pericles,  the  pupil  of  Socrates  !  We  may  infer,  however, 
from  Isocrates  *  that  the  action  was  generally  condemned, 
and  that  the  more  upright  Athenians  at  least  were  ashamed 
of  it. 


CHAPTER  VIl.t 

AFFAIRS    OF    SICILY.  ATHENIAN    EXPEDITION    TO    SICILY.  

PROSECUTION  OF  ALCIBIADES  FOR  IMPIETY. DESCRIP- 
TION OF  SYRACUSE. BATTLE  AT  SYRACUSE.  PREPA- 
RATIONS   FOR    THE    WAR. SIEGE    OF    SYRACUSE. 

It  would  appear  that  even  in  the  time  of  Pericles  the  Athe- 
nians had  formed  some  designs  on  the  Island  of  Sicily,  for 

*  Panatheh.  245. 

t  Thuc.  vi.  vii.  1—25.     Diod.  xii.  82—84;  xiii.  1—9      Plut.  Nicias 
and  Alcibiadcs. 


AFFAIRS    OF    SICILY.  225 

one  of  the  inducements  held  out  by  the  Corcyraeans  when 
they  came  to  solicit  an  alliance,  was  the  advantages  which 
their  island  offered  for  a  passage  to  Sicily.  As  this  island 
was  remarkable  for  its  fertility,  it  exported  a  great  deal  of 
corn  to.  Peloponnesus  ;  and  the  wish  to  deprive  their  enemies 
of  this  supply,  and  to  divert  it  to  their  own  port,  joined  with 
the  usual  lust  for  extending  dominion,  first  probably  led 
the  Athenians  to  meditate  so  distant  a  conquest. 

Sicily,  it  is  probable,  was  originally  peopled  from  Italy. 
Its  inhabitants,  named  Sicanians  and  Sikelans,  occupied 
the  interior,  but  Grecian  colonies  had  settled  on  the  coast. 
Naxos  was  founded  (Ol.  11,  1)  by  the  Chalcidians  from 
Eubcea,  and  Syracuse  (Ol.  11,  2)  by  the  Corinthians.  The 
Naxians  afterwards  founded  Leontini  and  Catana ;  and  Acrae, 
Casmenae,  and  Camarina  were  colonies  from  Syracuse.  Me- 
garians  founded  the  Hyblaean  Megara  and  Selinus,  and  Rho- 
dians  and  Cretans  Gela,  of  which  Acragas  (Agrigentum) 
was  a  colony.  We  thus  see  that  there  was  a  Dorian  and 
an  Ionian  *  party  in  Sicily  also,  and  that  the  former  was  by 
much  the  more  powerful. 

In  the  fifth  year  of  the  Peloponnesian  war,  (Ol.  88,  2,) 
the  people  of  Leontini,  being  hard  pressed  by  the  Syracu- 
sans,  sent  to  Athens  imploring  aid  on  the  ground  of  consan- 
guinity. A  fleet  of  twenty  triremes  was  sent  under  Laches 
and  Charaeades,  and  Leontini  was  relieved.  Charaeades 
having  been  slain,  Laches  carried  on  the  war  with  ability. 
The  Syracusans  then  increased  their  marine,  and  the  Athe- 
nians prepared  to  send  out  a  superior  fleet.  Pythodorus 
came  immediately  with  a  few  triremes  and  took  the  chief 
command,  and  in  the  spring  (Ol.  88,  4)  Sophocles  and 
Eurymedon  left  Athens  with  a  fleet  of  triremes  ;  but  while 
they  were  detained  off  Peloponnesus,  Pythodorus  gained  a 
victory  in  the  Strait  of  Messana.  The  designs  of  the  Athe- 
nians were  now  seen  through,  and  the  good  sense  and  true 
patriotism  of  Hermocrates,  a  Syracusan,  prevailed  on  all  the 

*  The  Euboeans  were  reckoned  of  the  Ionian  race. 

c  c 


226  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

contending  states  to  form  a  general  peace.  The  Athenian 
fleet  was  therefore  obliged  to  return  home ;  and  the  sove- 
reign people  were  so  incensed  at  seeing  their  views  of  con- 
quest thus  balked,  that  they  fined  Eurymedon  and  banished 
his  colleagues.     (01.  89,  1.) 

Tranquillity  did  not  long  prevail  in  Sicily.  Among  other 
events,  a  quarrel  broke  out  between  the  towns  of  Selinus 
and  Egesta.*  The  Selinuntians,  having  called  the  Syra- 
cusans  to  their  aid,  had  the  advantage ;  and  the  Egestaeans, 
despairing  of  any  equal  support  in  Sicily,  resolved,  though 
contrary  to  the  terms  of  the  general  peace,  to  call  in  the 
Athenians.  Their  embassy  arrived  (Ol.  91,  1)  soon  after 
the  renewal  of  the  alliance  with  Argos.  They  represented 
the  increase  of  the  power  of  the  Syracusans,  and  showed  the 
probability  of  their  reducing  the  whole  island,  if  not  checked, 
and  then,  as  they  were  Dorians  by  origin,  throwing  their 
weight  into  the  scale  of  the  Dorian  confederacy  against 
Athens.  For  themselves,  they  said,  they  had  money  enough 
for  the  expenses  of  the  war.  They  were  heard  with  favor, 
and  deputies  were  sent  to  Egesta  to  see  if  they  had  the  funds 
they  spoke  of,  and  to  examine  into  the  state  of  the  war. 

The  following  spring  (Ol.  91,  2)  the  deputies  and  Eges- 
tan  envoys  came  back  to  Athens  with  sixty  talents  as  a 
month's  pay  for  sixty  triremes.  The  deputies  vouched  for 
every  thing  the  Egesteeans  said,  and  asserted  that  there  was 
abundance  of  wealth  in  the  temples  and  in  the  treasury  of 
their  town.  It  was  decreed  at  once  to  send  a  fleet  of  sixty 
triremes,  commanded  by  Nicias,  Alcibiades,  and  Lamachus, 
to  aid  the  Egestaeans,  to  restore  the  Leontines,  whom  the 
Syracusans  had  expelled  from  their  town,  and  who  had  also 
sent  imploring  aid  ;  and  to  do  whatever  else  they  should  deem 
to  be  for  the  Athenian  interest.  Another  assembly  was  held 
five  days  afterwards,  and  then  Nicias  came  forward  to  en- 
deavor to  dissuade  the  people  from  engaging  in  this  mad 
enterprise.     He  pointed  out  the  unsettled  state  of  their  re- 

*  The  Egestaeans  claimed  descent  from  the  Trojans. 


ATHENIAN    EXPEDITION    TO    SICILY.  227 

lations  in  Greece ;  showed  that  even  if  the  Syracusans  should 
become  masters  of  Sicily,  the  democratic  form  of  their 
government  would  incline  them  to  Athens  rather  than  to 
Sparta ;  and  hinted  that  it  was  the  hopes  of  repairing  his 
dilapidated  fortune  that  made  Alcibiades  so  eager  for  this 
war. 

Alcibiades,  who  really  did  look  forward  to  the  conquest 
of  Sicily,  and  even  of  Carthage,  and  to  the  acquisition  of 
much  private  wealth,  rose  to  reply.  He  boasted  of  his  lavish 
expenditure  as  tending  to  reflect  glory  on  the  city ;  ac- 
knowledged his  love  of  fame,  which  he  sought  to  obtain  by 
promoting  the  interest  of  Athens ;  and  confessed  the  merits 
of  his  rival,  whose  prudence  would  be  a  useful  check  on  his 
own  impetuosity.  The  strength  of  the  Sicilians,  he  said,  was 
greatly  exaggerated  ;  the  Peloponnesians  could  only  do  as 
they  had  often  done  before  —  invade  Attica,  and  then  retire. 
Finally,  they  had  every  thing  to  hope,  little  to  fear. 

He  was  heard  with  applause  :  the  Egestaeans  and  Leontines 
came  forward  and  implored  the  people  to  remember  their 
oaths  and  to  relieve  them.  Nicias  saw  that  his  only  chance 
was  to  dismay  the  people  by  the  magnitude  of  the  armament 
he  should  demand  ;  but  the  assembly,  nothing  daunted  by 
his  representations,  called  on  him  to  state  what  forces  he 
should  require.  He  then  said,  not  less  than  one  hundred 
triremes,  five  thousand  hoplites  of  themselves  and  their  allies 
at  the  very  least,  and  light  troops  in  proportion.  It  was  in- 
stantly voted  that  the  generals  should  have  absolute  powers 
respecting  the  number  of  the  troops  and  every  thing  con- 
cerning the  expedition.  Catalogues  of  those  able  to  serve 
were  made  out,  and  orders  and  invitations  sent  to  the  allies. 

The  Athenians  had  completely  recovered  from  the  effects 
of  the  pestilence  and  the  war ;  there  was  plenty  of  money, 
and  an  ardent,  vigorous  population.  The  older  sort  believed 
that  the  expedition  would  succeed,  or  that  at  any  rate  the 
loss  would  not  be  great ;  the  younger  were  eager  after  nov- 
elty, and  confident  of  success  ;  the  inferior  people  reckoned 
that   they  would,  for   the  present,  get  pay  as  soldiers  and 


228  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

sailors,  and  that  the  extent  of  the  Athenian  dominion  would 
be  in  future  a  source  of  income  to  them  in  the  assembly, 
courts  of  justice,  and  elsewhere.  All  were  elate  with  hope  : 
those  who  augured  ill  were  silent,  lest  they  should  be  esteemed 
bad  citizens. 

The  preparations  were  nearly  complete,  when  one  morn- 
ing it  was  discovered  that  the  heads  of  all  the  Hermce  * 
throughout  the  city  had  been  mutilated  during  the  prece- 
ding night.  The  superstitious  people  regarded  this  as  omi- 
nous, and  also  as  indicative  of  a  conspiracy  to  overthrow 
the  constitution.  Large  rewards  were  offered  to  any  one 
who  would  give  information  respecting  this  or  any  other 
act  of  impiety  which  had  been  committed.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, transpired  touching  the  Herman,  but  witnesses  averred 
that  on  former  occasions  some  young  men,  when  heated  with 
wine,  had  defaced  other  statues,  and  even  profanely  cele- 
brated the  Mysteries  in  private  houses.  Alcibiades  was  said 
to  have  been  one  of  them,  and  his  enemies,  magnifying  every 
thing,  declared  that  all  this  only  testified  his  settled  design  of 
dissolving  the  democracy.  He  denied  the  charges  strenu- 
ously, and  called  for  an  immediate  trial ;  but  this  did  not 
suit  the  purpose  of  his  enemies,  who  feared  that  the  army 
would  take  his  part,  and  the  people  also  would  lean  to  him, 
as  he  had  prevailed  on  the  Argives  and  Mantineans  to  share 
in  the  expedition.  They  therefore  insisted  that  the  fleet 
should  not  be  delayed,  saying  that  he  could  return  and  take 
his  trial  another  time. 

At  midsummer  all  was  ready.  Corcyra  was  named  as  the 
place  where  the  allies  were  to  assemble.  On  a  given  day, 
the  Athenians  and  such  of  the  allies  as  were  at  Athens  went 
down  to  the  Piraeeus,  and  with  dawn  got  on  board  their  ships ; 
the  whole  population,  citizens  and  strangers,  poured  down 
to  the  port  to  see  them  depart.  Their  friends  and  relatives 
shed  tears  at  the  thoughts  of  the  distance  to  which  they 
were  going,  and  the  perils  to  which  they  would  be  exposed  ; 

*  The  statues  of  the  god  Hermes. 


ATHENIAN    EXPEDITION    TO    SICILY.  229 

but  their  spirits  rallied  when  they  viewed  the  gallant  show 
of  the  fleet,  for  this  was  the  finest  and  most  splendidly 
equipped  armament  that  had  ever  left  a  Grecian  port.  No 
expense  had  been  spared  by  the  state  or  by  individuals ;  the 
trierarchs  (captains)  vied  with  each  other  in  having  their  ships 
well  appointed,  the  hoplites  in  the  possession  of  the  best 
armor  and  weapons ;  all  were  anxious  to  display  to  Greece 
the  power  of  Athens.  Yet  still  the  more  thoughtful,  such 
as  Socrates,  felt  not  confident ;  and  to  the  apprehension  of 
the  superstitious,  the  wailing  of  the  women  for  Adonis,  (this 
being  the  time  of  the  Adoneia,)  and  the  funereal  rites  of  that 
festival  cast  a  shade  of  gloom  over  all  the  magnificence  of 
the  scene.* 

When  every  thing  was  on  board,  the  trumpets  sounded  for 
silence,  and  a  general  prayer  was  offered  up,  the  officers 
and  soldiers  pouring  libations  of  wine  from  gold  and  silver 
cups,  and  the  multitude  on  shore  joining  in  the  petitions  to 
the  gods.  The  fleet  then  got  under  weigh,  and  passed  over 
to  JEgina,  whence  it  made  sail  for  Corcyra. 

The  news,  when  it  reached  Syracuse,  was  hardly  credited. 
At  length,  when  it  could  no  longer  be  doubted,  an  assembly 
was  held.  Hermocrates  advised  to  form  an  alliance  with 
the  Barbarians,  or  original  natives  of  the  interior;  to  apply 
for  aid  to  Lacedaemon,  Corinth,  and  even  Carthage;  to  col- 
lect as  large  a  fleet  as  possible,  and  lie  with  it  in  the  Bay 
of  Taras,  (Tarentum,)  and  attack  the  Athenian  fleet  when 
fatigued  with  the  rowage  across  the  Ionian  Sea.  The  greater 
part  of  the  assembly  laughed  outright,  and  a  demagogue 
named  Athenagoras  came  forward,  and,  with  the  ignorance, 
disregard  of  truth,  and  assumption  usual  to  such  persons, 
described  the  whole  as  a  fiction  of  the  oligarchs  eager  to 
get  military  command  in  order  to  assail  the  democracy.  The 
Athenians,  he  said,  had  enough  to  do  at  home,  and  they 
were  too  wise  to  venture  where  they  were  sure  to  meet  with 
destruction.  The  assembly  broke  up  without  having  come 
to  any  decision. 

*  Plutarch,  Nicias,  13. 

20 


230  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Meantime  the  whole  Athenian  armament  had  reached 
Corcyra.  It  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  tri- 
remes, of  which  a  hundred  were  Athenian :  on  board  were 
5100  hoplites  ;  480  archers,  80  of  whom  were  Cretans  ;  700 
Rhodian  slingers ;  120  light-armed  Megarian  exiles ;  and 
thirty  horsemen  and  their  horses  in  one  transport.  These 
were  attended  by  thirty  merchant-ships  with  provisions, 
and  carrying  bakers,  carpenters,  and  other  artists,  followed 
by  one  hundred  vessels  which  had  been  pressed,  and  a  num- 
ber of  others  which  came  voluntarily  for  the  sake  of  trade. 
The  whole  fleet,  for  convenience,  was  divided  into  three 
squadrons ;  and  three  triremes  were  sent  on  before  to  sound 
the  people  of  the  cities  on  the  coast  of  Italy  and  Sicily. 

The  fleet  crossed  over  to  the  point  of  Japygia,  and  thence 
coasted  Italy  to  that  of  Rhegion.  Here  the  ships  were 
drawn  ashore,  and  the  army  encamped  without  the  town. 
The  generals  tried  to  induce  the  Rhegians,  who  were  of 
Chalcidian  origin,  to  join  in  aiding  the  Leontines ;  but  they 
declared  that  they  would  act  as  they  should  see  the  other 
Italiotes  *  acting.  The  Syracusans,  now  convinced  that  the 
Athenians  were  really  coming,  lost  no  time  in  preparing  to 
resist  them. 

While  the  fleet  was  at  Rhegion,  the  three  triremes  re- 
turned from  Egesta.  It  appeared  that  the  Egestseans  had 
boasted  falsely  of  their  wealth,  and  had  deceived  the  Athe- 
nian deputies  by  taking  them  to  the  temple  on  Mount  Eryx, 
and  showing  them  the  offerings  there,  and  borrowing  from 
the  adjacent  towns  gold  and  silver  vessels  to  display  at  the 
entertainments  they  gave  them.  The  real  amount  of  their 
wealth  did  not  exceed  thirty  talents.  This  was  just  as 
Nicias  had  expected  it  would  be ;  but  his  colleagues  were 
greatly  disappointed  and  chagrined.  In  the  council  which 
they  held,  Nicias  was  of  opinion  that  they  should  sail  to 
Selinus,  and  if  then  the  Egestaeans  could  give  pay  to  the 
whole  army,  to  act  accordingly  ;  if  not,  to  require  them  to 

*  The  Itali6tes  were  the  Greeks  of  Italy,  the  Siciliotes  those  of  Sicily. 


ATHENIAN    EXPEDITION   TO    SICILY.  231 

supply  provisions  for  the  sixty  triremes  they  had  asked  for, 
and  by  fair  means  or  force  to  reconcile  them  and  the  Seli- 
nuntians;  to  sail  thence  along  the  island,  and  display  the 
Athenian  power  to  the  other  towns,  and  then  to  return 
home.  Alcibiades  thought  it  would  be  disgraceful  to  have 
done  nothing  with  such  an  armament.  He  proposed  that, 
they  should  send  deputies  to  all  the  towns  but  Syracuse  and 
Selinus,  and  to  the  Sikelans,  and  try  to  form  treaties  with 
them.  Lamachus  advised  (and  his  was  perhaps  the  best  plan) 
to  attack  the  Syracusans  at  once,  while  they  were  in  confusion 
and  unprepared ;  but  finding  so  bold  a  course  not  agreeable 
to  the  others,  he  came  over  to  the  opinion  of  Alcibiades. 

Alcibiades  went  himself  to  Messana,  but  all  his  arguments 
could  only  procure  a  promise  of  a  market  without  the  town. 
When  he  came  back  to  Rhegion,  he  and  one  of  his  col- 
leagues sailed  with  sixty  triremes  to  Naxos,  and  thence  to 
Catana.  They  then  went  to  Syracuse,  and  sent  ten  ships 
into  the  Great  Harbor  to  see  if  a  fleet  were  there,  to  pro- 
claim that  they  were  come  to  restore  the  Leontines  to  their 
country,  and  to  call  on  all  of  them  who  were  there  to  join 
them.  When  they  had  done  all  they  proposed,  they  re- 
turned to  Catana,  and  the  people  there  having  agreed  to  an 
alliance,  they  returned  to  Rhegion  for  the  remainder  of 
the  fleet.  Having  been  told  that  the  people  of  Camarina 
were  friendly  disposed  toward  them,  they  sailed  thither,  but 
were  not  able  to  effect  any  thing ;  and  on  their  return  they 
found  the  Salaminian  trireme  *  come  to  recall  Alcibiades 
and  some  others  to  stand  their  trial  for  the  affair  of  the 
Hernia). 

For  after  the  departure  of  the  fleet,  the  inquiry  had  been 
prosecuted  with  eagerness.  The  people  were  at  the  same 
time  grossly  superstitious  and  absurdly  jealous  of  their  lib- 
erty. The  wildest  and  most  improbable  tales,  therefore, 
were  listened  to  with  open-mouthed  credulity  ;  one  man,  for 
instance,  asserting  that  he  had  seen  and  recognised  the  per- 

"  The  Athenians  had  two  triremes  for  state  purposes,  the  Salaminian 
and  Paralian. 


232  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

sons  who  mutilated  the  Hermae  by  moonlight,  though  every 
one  knew  it  had  been  new-moon  that  night.  A  great  num- 
ber of  persons  were  cast  into  prison ;  some  were  put  to  death ; 
others  fled  ;  terror  seized  every  one,  great  and  small.  The 
whole  city  was  under  arms ;  the  senate  even  slept  one  night 
on  the  Acropolis ;  hardly  any  one  ventured  to  enter  the  mar- 
ket. The  Lacedaemonians  happening  at  this  time  to  march 
a  small  force  to  the  Isthmus  on  its  way  to  Boeotia,  it  was 
believed  at  once  that  its  real  object  was  to  aid  in  overthrow- 
ing the  democracy.  Alcibiades'  friends  at  Argos  also  fell 
under  suspicion  there,  and  the  Athenians  delivered  up  the 
hostages  in  their  hands  to  the  Argive  demos  to  be  put  to 
death. 

Among  the  prisoners  was  Andocides,  one  of  the  sacerdo- 
tal family  of  the  Ceryces.  Suspicion  was  strong  against 
him,  and  one  of  his  fellow-prisoners  urged  him,  if  he  knew 
the  guilty  persons,  to  tell,  and  thus  to  save  the  innocent 
Andocides,  therefore,  declared  that  the  information  given  by 
a  Metoec,  named  Teucer,  had  been  the  truth,  and  added  four 
names  to  his  list.  Andocides  and  his  family  were  then  set 
at  liberty.  Such  of  the  accused  as  could  be  found  were  put 
to  death,  and  rewards  were  offered  for  the  heads  of  those 
who  had  fled ;  and  as  Alcibiades'  name  was  mentioned  by 
every  informer,  the  popular  vengeance  was  directed  partic- 
ularly against  him. 

The  whole  affair  is  involved  in  impenetrable  obscurity :  * 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  confession  of  Andocides  was 
true  or  false.  It  was,  however,  sufficiently  in  the  charac- 
ter of  Alcibiades  to  have  had  a  mock  celebration  of  the 
Eleusinian  Mysteries  at  one  of  his  riotous  revels.  Similar 
acts  of  profaneness  have  taken  place  in  modern  times  with- 
out any  design  against  the  state ;  and  the  mutilation  of  the 
HermoB  has  some  resemblance  to  the  demolition  of  the 
lamps  in  cities  as  a  frolic  of  young  men  of  rank  and  for- 
tune.t 

*  See  Andocides'  speech  on  the  Mysteries. 

t  Sievers  (Comment,  de  Xcn.  Hell.,  P.  i.  p.  10)  thinks  it  was  an 


DESCRIPTION    OF    SYRACUSE.  233 

Alcibiades  feigned  a  cheerful  obedience  to  the  mandate 
of  the  people.  He  and  the  other  accused  persons  accompa- 
nied the  Salaminian  in  his  own  trireme  as  far  as  Thurii,  on 
the  coast  of  Italy.  Here,  however,  they  made  their  escape  ; 
and  on  the  return  of  the  Salaminian,  sentence  of  death  was 
passed  against  them.  Shortly  afterwards  Alcibiades  went 
over  to  Peloponnesus. 

After  the  departure  of  Alcibiades,  the  generals  sailed  to 
Egesta  and  Selinus.  On  their  way  they  took  a  Sicanian 
town  named  Hyccara,  whose  inhabitants  they  sold  for  one 
hundred  and  twenty  talents.  The  land  force  then  returned 
through  the  interior  to  Catana ;  and  Nicias,  having  received 
the  thirty  talents  from  the  Egestaeans,  brought  the  fleet  back 
to  the  same  place. 

The  Syracusans,  when  they  saw  that  the  Athenians  had 
not  ventured  to  lay  siege  to  their  city,  and  had  even  failed 
in  an  attack  on  the  town  of  Hybla,  grew,  after  the  wont  of 
a  populace,  full  of  presumption,  and  insisted  on  their  gene- 
rals leading  them  to  Catana.  Their  horsemen  even  rode 
up  to  the  camp  of  the  Athenians,  and  asked  in  a  jeering  tone 
if  they  were  come  to  settle  there  themselves,  instead  of  re- 
storing the  Leontines  to  their  country.  The  Athenian  gene- 
rals, finding  them  in  this  mood,  devised  a  stratagem  to  draw 
their  whole  force  away  from  Syracuse,  while  they  themselves 
should  safely  take  up  an  advantageous  position  near  that 
city.  To  understand  the  following  movements  a  description 
of  Syracuse  will  be  necessary. 

The  small  island  of  Ortygia,  close  to  a  peninsula  on  the 
east  coast  of  Sicily,  was  the  original  seat  of  the  Corinthian 
colony.  When  their  numbers  increased  they  also  occupied 
the  peninsula,  to  which  they  joined  Ortygia  by  a  mole.  At 
this  time  the  city  consisted  of  two  parts,  the  Island  and  Acra- 
dina,  as  the  nearest  part  of  the  peninsula  was  called  :  be- 
yond Acradina  lay  two  suburbs,  named  Tyca  and  Temenites, 

ebullition  of  the  joy  of  Alcibiades'  friends  at  the  Sicilian  expedition 
being  resolved  on. 

20*  DD 


234  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

parallel  to  each  other.  The  land  rose  thence  gradually,  and 
was  named  Epipolae ;  the  Latomiai,  or  stone-quarries,  were 
on  it,  near  which  was  an  elevation  named  Labdalon,  and 
farther  west  another  called  Euryalus.  Northwards  of  Acra- 
dina  was  the  harbor  of  Trogilus;  southwards,  the  Great 
Harbor ;  and  between  Acradina  and  the  Island,  on  the 
north  side,  the  Lesser  Harbor.  The  Great  Harbor,  eighty 
stadia  in  circuit,  terminated  at  Plemmyrion  on  the  south, 
the  entrance  between  Plemmyrion  and  Ortygia  being  eight 
stadia  in  width  :  within  the  Great  Harbor  on  the  south-west 
was  a  recess  named  Dascon.  The  River  Anapus  entered 
the  Harbor  from  the  west :  about  ten  stadia  from  its  mouth  it 
was  crossed  by  a  bridge,  and  between  it  and  Temenites  was 
the  Lysimelian  Marsh.  On  the  south  bank  of  the  Anapus 
was  a  hill,  on  which  was  a  village  or  small  town,  {^ollyvrj^ 
and  close  to  it  a  temple  of  Zeus,  whence  the  hill  derived  its 
name  of  Olympieion. 

As  the  Athenian  army  was  so  very  deficient  in  cavalry,  it 
had  been  proposed  by  some  Syracusan  exiles  who  were  in  the 
camp,  that  they  should  remove  and  take  up  a  position  at  the 
Olympieion.  To  effect  this  with  safety  it  was  necessary  to 
draw  the  whole  force  of  the  Syracusans  to  Catana.  They 
therefore  sent  a  Catansean,  on  whom  they  could  depend,  to 
the  Syracusan  generals,  as  if  from  their  friends  in  Catana, 
to  tell  them  that  the  Athenians  were  in  the  habit  of  leaving 
their  camp  and  sleeping  in  the  town,  and  that  if  they  would 
on  a  certain  day  attack  the  camp  with  their  entire  force, 
their  friends  in  the  town  would  rise  and  burn  the  Athenian 
fleet,  so  that  all  the  invaders  might  thus  be  destroyed. 

The  generals  fell  into  the  snare  :  the  Syracusans  and  their 
allies  issued  forth  with  all  their  forces,  and  encamped,  in 
the  night  before  the  appointed  day,  on  the  River  Sima:thus. 
When  the  Athenians  heard  they  were  there,  they  got  on 
board  their  ships  and  made  sail  for  Syracuse.  At  dawn  they 
landed  unopposed,  and  encamped  under  the  Olympieion, 
defended  on  one  side  by  trees,  walls,  houses,  and  a  lake ; 
on   another   by   steep  banks.     They   cut   down    trees  and 


PLAN  OF  SYRACUSE. 


p.  235. 


A.  Island. 

B.  Acradina. 

C.  Temenites. 

D.  Tyca. 

E.  Epipolte. 

F.  Olympieion. 


G.  Plemmyrion. 
H.  Great  Harbor. 
I.    Anapus. 
K.  Lysimelian  Mead. 

a.  Lesser  Harbor. 

b.  Dascon. 


c.  Trogilus. 

d.  Stone-quarries,  (Latomiffi.) 

e.  Labdalon. 

f.  Euryaius. 

1.  2.  3.  Walls  of  the  Syracusana. 
4.  5.  Walls  of  the  Athenians. 


BATTLE    AT    SYRACUSE.  237 

made  a  paling  about  the  ships,  and  threw  up  a  rampart  on 
the  side  whence  they  were  most  likely  to  be  attacked ;  they 
also  broke  down  the  bridge  over  the  Anapus. 

When  the  Syracusans  found  the  Athenians  gone,  they 
returned  home  with  all  speed.  They  lay,  the  evening  of 
their  arrival,  on  the  Helorian  road.  Next  day  the  Athenian 
generals  led  their  men  out  to  battle;  the  Syracusans,  no- 
ways deficient  in  patriotism  or  courage,  but  inferior  in  skill 
and  discipline,  advanced  to  engage  them.  The  action  was 
vigorously  maintained  for  some  time ;  but  a  thunder-storm 
coming  on  daunted  the  more  inexperienced  Syracusans. 
Their  left  wing  gave  way  and  fled,  and  the  rout  soon  be- 
came general.  But  their  horse,  twelve  hundred  in  number, 
prevented  pursuit,  and  their  loss  did  not  exceed  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  men  ;  that  of  the  victors  amounted  only  to 
fifty.  Next  day  the  Athenians,  having  burnt  their  own 
dead  and  restored  those  of  the  enemy,  got  on  board  their 
ships  and  returned  to  Catana,  for  it  was  now  winter,  and 
therefore  no  season  for  further  operations ;  they  also  saw 
that  till  they  had  cavalry  they  should  always  fight  to  disad- 
vantage,. Money  from  home  or  elsewhere  was  also  required, 
and  it  was  hoped  that  this  victory  would  give  them  consid- 
eration in  the  eyes  of  the  Sicilians,  and  that  they  might 
be  able  to  gain  over  some  towns.  The  troops  were  quar- 
tered at  Catana  and  Naxos,  and  it  was  resolved  to  form  the 
siege  of  Syracuse  in  the  spring. 

In  the  assembly  which  the  Syracusans  held  after  the  bat- 
tle, Hermocrates  desired  them  not  to  be  dejected,  as  they 
had  fought  far  better  than  was  to  be  expected  under  the 
circumstances :  all  they  wanted  was  experience  and  disci- 
pline. The  number  of  their  generals,  which  was  fifteen, 
was,  he  said,  productive  of  disorder  ;  and  he  advised  a  reduc- 
tion, and  that  unlimited  power  should  be  intrusted  to  them, 
as  otherwise  their  plans  could  never  be  kept  secret  from  the 
enemy.  All  the  suggestions  of  Hermocrates  were  attended 
to ;  the  supreme,  unrestricted  command  was  given  to  him- 
self, Heracleidas,  and  Sicanus ;   ambassadors  were  sent  to 


233  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

Corinth  and  Sparta ;  a  wall  was  built,  taking  in  the  Teme- 
nites,  so  that  in  case  of  defeat  the  enemy  would  have  a  longer 
space  to  circumvallate ;  a  fort  was  raised  at  Megara,  and 
another  on  the  Olympieion ;  they  also  made  palings  at  all 
the  landing-places.  Hearing  that  the  Athenians  were  all 
at  Naxos,  they  marched  to  Catana,  where  they  wasted  the 
lands  and  burned  the  camp  which  the  Athenians  had  left. 

The  Athenians  meantime  made  a  fruitless  attempt  to  gain 
Messana ;  for  Alcibiades,  now  the  enemy  of  his  country,  had 
given  information  to  the  party  in  the  Syracusan  interest. 
Having  spent  thirteen  days  before  it,  they  returned  to  Naxos, 
and  there  secured  their  camp  for  the  winter. 

The  Syracusan  embassy  met  with  a  most  cordial  reception 
at  Corinth,  and  Corinthian  ministers  accompanied  it  thence 
to  Sparta,  where  the  government  was  willing  enough  to  send 
envoys,  recommending  the  Syracusans  not  to  make  any 
terms,  but  scrupled  to  give  any  effective  aid.  To  the  mis- 
fortune of  Athens,  Alcibiades  was  here ;  he  had  crossed 
over  from  Thurii  to  Elis  in  a  merchantman,  and  had  after- 
wards proceeded  on  invitation  to  Lacedaemon.  He  came 
forward,  and  drew  an  alarming  picture  of  the  ambitious 
projects  of  the  Athenians  :  he  said  they  aimed  at  reducing 
Sicily  and  Italy ;  then  turning  their  arms  against  Carthage, 
and  having  procured  large  bodies  of  excellent  mercenaries 
in  Spain,  to  come  and  assail  Peloponnesus  by  sea  and  land. 
This  project,  he  said,  was  not  as  wild  as  it  might  appear ; 
for  if  Syracuse  fell,  all  Sicily,  and  even  Italy,  would  follow. 
It  was  therefore  necessary  to  aid  the  Syracusans  by  sending 
them  troops,  and  above  all  a  skilful  general.  He  finally  ad- 
vised to  assail  the  Athenians  at  home  by  occupying  a  for- 
tress in  Attica ;  by  which  means  they  would  derive  no  sup- 
plies from  their  lands,  and  their  allies  would  be  imboldened 
to  revolt  when  they  saw  this  proof  of  their  weakness.  The 
opinion  of  Alcibiades  prevailed ;  it  was  resolved  to  aid  the 
Syracusans.  Gylippus  was  appointed  to  the  command,  and 
the  Corinthians  were  directed  to  supply  what  troops  they 
would. 


SIEGE    OF    SYRACUSE.  239 

Durino-  the  winter  the  Athenian  generals  gained  over  to 
their  side  the  greater  part  of  the  Sikelans  of  the  interior, 
from  whom  they  obtained  corn,  and,  in  some  cases,  money. 
They  also  sent  to  Carthage  and  Etruria,  to  endeavor  to 
form  alliances.  They  collected  all  the  horses  they  could 
get,  and  provided  bricks  and  iron  for  the  circumvallation. 

In  the  spring,  (01.  91,3,)  they  opened  the  campaign  by 
an  expedition  to  Megara,  where  they  gave  the  Syracusans 
a  slight  defeat,  and  then  returned  to  Catana.  On  their  re- 
turn thither  from  another  expedition  against  some  Sikelan 
towns,  they  found  two  hundred  and  fifty  horsemen  and  thirty 
horse  archers  arrived  from  Athens,  with  all  their  accoutre- 
ments, but  without  horses,  and  three  hundred  talents  in 
money.  The  Syracusans,  when  they  heard  of  the  arrival  of 
these  horsemen,  reckoned  that  the  Athenians  would  march 
at  once  against  Syracuse  ;  and  knowing  that  if  Epipolae  were 
preoccupied  it  would  be  difficult  for  them  to  circumvallate 
the  town,  they  resolved  to  place  a  garrison  there.  At  day- 
break one  morning,  the  whole  Syracusan  force  appeared  in 
review  on  the  mead  at  the  Anapus,  and  seven  hundred  picked 
men  were  appointed  to  go  and  occupy  a  post  on  the  Epipolae. 
But  that  very  day  the  Athenians  had  sailed,  unknown  to 
them,  from  Catana;  and  having  landed  the  troops  at  a  place 
called  Leon,  six  or  seven  stadia  from  Epipolae,  the  fleet  went 
and  secured  itself  at  the  low  peninsula  of  Thapsus  ;  and  the 
troops  pressed  on  and  ascended  at  the  Euryalus  before  they 
were  perceived  by  the  army  in  review  on  the  mead,  which 
was  twenty-five  stadia  distant.  The  Syracusans  advanced 
in  disorder  to  attack  them,  but  were  driven  off  with  the  loss 
of  three  hundred  men.  Next  day  the  Athenians  came  down 
and  offered  battle ;  but  as  the  Syracusans  would  not  come 
out  to  meet  them,  they  retired,  and  fell  to  fortifying  the 
Labdalon  as  a  place  of  arms. 

Having  now  mounted  their  own  horsemen,  and  being 
joined  by  three  hundred  from  Egesta  and  one  hundred  Sike- 
lans and  Naxians,  the  Athenians  had  a  body  of  six  hundred 
and  fifty  horse.     They  therefore  advanced  to  Tyca,  and  com- 


240  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

menced  their  works,  intending  to  circumvallate  from  the 
Trogilus  to  the  Great  Harbor.  The  Syracusans  were  ter- 
rified when  they  saw  the  rate  at  which  the  wall  advanced, 
and  they  led  out  their  forces ;  but  fearing  to  risk  an  engage- 
ment, they  only  sent  their  horse  to  impede  the  Athenian 
workmen.  These,  however,  were  soon  put  to  flight  by  the 
Athenian  horse  and  some  hoplites,  and  next  day  the  works 
advanced  as  rapidly  as  ever  toward  the  Trogilus.  The 
Syracusans  on  their  side  began  to  run  a  cross-wall  from  the 
city  between  the  Athenians  and  the  Great  Harbor,  using 
the  olive-trees  of  the  temple  of  Apollo  for  the  construction 
of  wooden  towers.  As  the  Athenians,  fearing  to  divide  their 
forces,  did  not  disturb  them,  they  ran  the  wall  out  as  far  as 
they  thought  necessary,  and  then,  leaving  a  party  to  guard 
it,  returned  to  the  city.  The  Athenians,  observing  the 
Syracusans  quite  negligent  and  careless  at  noontide,  directed 
three  hundred  picked  men  and  some  light  troops  to  make  a 
sudden  attack  on  the  stockade  in  advance  of  the  wall ;  the 
rest  of  the  army  was  divided  into  two  parts,  the  one  to  keep 
the  forces  in  the  town  in  check,  the  other  to  advance  against 
the  stockade  in  front  of  the  gate  of  the  Temenites.  The 
attack  succeeded  fully ;  the  guard  fled,  and  they  and  their 
pursuers  entered  the  Temenites  pell-mell,  where  some  of 
the  latter  were  slain.  The  wall  was  then  thrown  down,  the 
stakes  carried  away,  and  a  trophy  raised. 

Next  day  the  Athenians  began  to  build  from  the  Epipolae 
toward  the  Marsh ;  the  Syracusans  set  about  running  a  pa- 
ling and  a  ditch  from  the  town  wall  through  the  Marsh  to 
cut  them  off  from  the  Harbor.  The  Athenian  fleet  was  then 
ordered  round  from  Thapsus,  and  at  daybreak  troops  came 
down  from  Epipolae,  and  laying  doors  and  boards  on  the  soft 
mud,  assailed  and  took  nearly  the  whole  of  the  new  works. 
The  Syracusans  who  came  out  to  defend  them  were  driven 
off;  their  right  wing  fled  to  the  town,  their  left  to  the  river. 
The  three  hundred  picked  men  made  for  the  bridge  to  in- 
tercept them  ;  but  the  Syracusans,  many  of  whom  were  horse, 
fell  on  and  dispersed  them,  and  then  charged  the  right  wing. 


SIEGE    OF    SYRACUSE.  241 

Lam  actios,  who  commanded,  hastened  from  the  left  with  the 
Argives  and  some  archers,  but  incautiously  crossing  a  ditch, 
he  and  four  or  five  of  those  who  followed  him  were  slain. 

Meantime  those  who  had  fled  to  the  town  turned,  and 
while  a  part  of  them  engaged  the  troops  opposed  to  them, 
another  part  advanced  to  destroy  the  redoubt  in  front  of  the 
wall  at  the  Epipoloe.  They  took  and  pulled  it  down,  and 
were  preparing  to  attack  the  wall,  when  Nicias,  who  was 
lying  sick,  sent  orders  to  the  workmen  to  set  fire  to  the 
wood  and  machines  which  were  out  before  it.  The  flames 
checked  the  assailants;  troops  came  to  the  defence  of  the 
wall;  the  fleet  was  seen  entering  the  Great  Harbor;  and 
the  Syracusans  retired  to  the  town,  giving  up  all  hopes  of 
being  able  to  impede  the  works.  They  began  to  treat  with 
Nicias  about  peace,  and  threw,  as  is  usual,  all  the  blame  of 
their  late  failure  on  their  generals,  whom  they  deprived  of 
their  command. 

Gylippus,  who  was  now  at  Leucas,  judging  from  what  he 
heard  that  all  must  be  nearly  over  with  Sicily,  resolved,  if 
possible,  to  save  the  towns  of  Italy  for  the  Dorian  cause.  He 
therefore  passed  with  the  four  triremes  he  had  with  him  to 
Taras,  and  thence  visited  the  other  towns  on  the  coast. 
Having  learned  the  true  state  of  affairs  at  Syracuse,  he  went 
through  the  strait,  which  was  unguarded,  to  Himera ;  and 
engaging  the  Himeraeans,  the  Geloans,  the  Selinuntians,  and 
some  of  the  Sikelan  tribes,  to  aid  him  with  men  and  arms,  he 
marched  for  Syracuse  with  about  five  thousand  men  of  all 
kinds.  He  ascended  the  Epipolse  by  the  Euryalus.  The 
Syracusans  come  out  with  all  their  forces  to  join  him,  and 
advanced  to  the  Athenian  works  in  order  of  battle ;  but 
Gylippus  saw  that  they  were  not  yet  steady  enough  for 
action,  and  having  sent  a  herald  offering  a  truce  to  the 
Athenians  if  they  would  engage  to  quit  Sicily  within  five 
days — which  offer  was  of  course  despised  —  he  drew  off  his 
troops,  and  bivouacked  *  for  the  night  on  the  Temenites. 

*  This  verb,  we  believe,  answers  pretty  exactly  to  the  Greek  avXl- 

21  E  E 


242  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

It  was  a  mere  accident  that  Gylippus  did  not  find  Syra- 
cuse in  alliance  with-  Athens.  An  assembly  was  about  to 
deliberate  on  this  subject,  when  Gongylus,  the  commander 
of  one  of  the  Corinthian  triremes  which  he  had  desired  to 
follow  him  from  Leucas,  being  left  behind  the  rest  of  the 
fleet,  and  having  sailed  more  directly  for  Sicily,  entered  the 
port,  and  informed  the  people  that  Gylippus  and  a  fleet 
were  coming  to  their  aid.  All  thoughts  of  accommodation 
were  then  abandoned,  and  they  resolved  to  march  out  and 
meet  him. 

Next  day  Gylippus  arrayed  his  forces  against  the  Athenian 
wall  to  occupy  their  troops,  while  he  sent  a  party  up  the 
Epipolae  to  attack  the  post  of  the  Labdalon  ;  and  as  it  was 
out  of  sight  of  the  Athenians,  they  made  themselves  masters 
of  it  with  ease.  The  same  day  an  Athenian  trireme  was 
taken  in  the  Great  Harbor. 

The  Athenian  works  were  now  nearly  carried  to  the 
sea  on  the  south  side ;  those  on  the  north  were  also  partly 
raised ;  but  the  part  under  the  Epipolae  was  still  open,  and 
Gylippus  saw  that  by  running  a  cross-wall  thither  from  the 
town,  he  should  cut  off  the  communication  between  the  two 
portions  of  the  forces  of  the  enemy.  A  wall  was  therefore 
instantly  commenced.  Meantime  he  attempted  a  night 
attack  on  the  Athenian  south  wall ;  but  finding  the  troops 
on  the  alert,  he  drew  off  his  forces. 

Nicias  saw  that  he  was  losing  his  superiority  by  land,  and 
must  look  chiefly  to  the  sea ;  he  therefore  resolved  to  secure 
the  Plemmyrian  headland  on  the  other  side  of  the  bay,  and 
passing  over  with  his  fleet  and  some  troops,  he  raised  on  it 
three  forts  to  hold  his  stores.  He  also  stationed  his  fleet 
there ;  but  as  the  sailors  had  to  go  some  distance  for  wood 
and  water,  they  were  constantly  fallen  on  by  the  Syracusan 
horse,  who  were  at  the  Polichne  or  village  on  the  Olym- 
pieion. 

Gylippus  soon  after  led  out  his  troops,  and  gave  the  Athe- 
nians battle  under  their  wall ;  but  the  space  being  confined, 
the  Syracusan  horse  could  not  act,  and  he  was  forced  to  re- 


SIEGE    OF    SYRACUSE.  243 

tire  with  some  loss.  He  called  the  people  together,  and  told 
them  not  to  be  cast  down,  for  the  fault  had  been  his,  not 
theirs ;  and  said  he  was  confident  that  they,  who  were  Do- 
rians, would  soon  show  their  superiority  over  Ionians  and 
islanders.  He  soon  led  them  out  again,  and  having  chosen 
ground  where  the  horse  could  act,  he  threw  the  Athenians 
into  confusion,  and  forced  them  to  retire  behind  their  works. 
Next  night  the  cross-wall,  which  was  now  far  advanced,  was 
carried  beyond  that  of  the  besiegers,  who  now  could  not, 
even  if  victorious,  succeed  in  walling  in  the  town. 

Nicias  had  sent  twenty  triremes  to  intercept  any  ships 
that  might  be  coming  to  the  relief  of  Syracuse  ;  but  twelve 
triremes  from  Corinth,  Leucas,  and  Ambracia  eluded  them, 
and  entered  the  harbor.  The  new-comers  aided  the  Syra- 
cusans  to  build  their  wall.  Gylippus  went  in  person  to  so- 
licit aid  from  the  other  Sicilian  towns  ;  deputies  were  sent 
to  Sparta  and  Corinth  to  urge  the  sending  of  more  troops ; 
ships  of  war  were  got  ready,  and  every  thing  prepared  for 
offensive  operations. 

Agreeably  to  the  caution  and  moral  timidity  of  his  charac- 
ter, and  knowing  the  capricious  masters  whom  he  served, 
Nicias  had  adopted  the  rather  unusual  course,  as  it  appears, 
of  writing  to  the  people  of  Athens,  instead  of  trusting  to  the 
memory,  judgment,  and  honesty  of  those  whom  he  sent 
home.  He  now  wrote  a  full  statement  of  the  posture  of 
affairs,  and  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  army  should  be 
recalled,  or  another  armament  of  equal  magnitude  sent  out 
to  reenforce  it.  For  himself  he  claimed  his  removal,  as  he 
was  suffering  severely  from  a  disease  of  the  kidneys. 

The  people,  when  they  heard  this  letter  read,  were  not 
awakened  from  their  dreams  of  dominion  by  the  difficulties 
which  it  presented  ;  they  resolved,  on  the  contrary,  to  prose- 
cute the  war  with  vigor.  Aware  of  the  merits  and  the 
honesty  of  Nicias,  they  would  not  accept  his  resignation, 
but  appointed  Menander  and  Euthydemus,  two  of  the  offi- 
cers under  him,  to  be  his  temporary  colleagues.  They  voted 
the  force  required,  nominating  Demosthenes  and  Euryme- 


244  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

don  to  the  command ;  and  though  it  was  mid-winter,  they 
sent  off  the  latter  instantly  with  ten  triremes  and  a  hundred 
and  twenty  talents  in  money. 

In  the  spring,  (Ol.  91,  4,)  Demosthenes  set  sail  from 
Athens  with  sixty  Athenian  and  five  Chian  triremes,  carry- 
ing 1200  Athenian  hoplites,  and  a  large  body  of  troops  of 
the  subject  allies.  He  was  joined  by  Charicles,  who  was 
off  Peloponnesus,  with  thirty  triremes,  and  pursuant  to  his 
instructions  he  landed  and  ravaged  the  lands  of  Epidaurus 
Limera,  on  the  coast  of  Laconia.  He  then  landed  on  the 
coast  opposite  Cythera,  and  plundered  it.  Leaving  Chari- 
cles to  fortify  a  small  peninsula  there,  as  a  place  of  refuge 
for  runaway  Helots,  he  steered  his  course  for  Corcyra. 

At  the  very  time  the  Athenians  were  sending  out  this 
fleet,  there  was  an  enemy  in  their  own  country.  The  Lace- 
daemonians imputed  all  the  misfortunes  they  had  met  with 
in  the  preceding  part  of  the  war  to  their  refusal  to  submit 
their  differences  with  the  Athenians  to  arbitration  ;  and  as 
the  Athenians  were  now  in  a  similar  position,  having  refused, 
though  called  on,  to  abide  the  judgment  of  a  tribunal  for 
the  aggressions  with  which  they  were  charged,  it  was  re- 
solved to  invade  Attica  once  more.  During  the  winter,  iron 
and  other  things  requisite  for  building  were  collected,  and 
in  the  spring  King  Agis  led  the  troops  of  the  confederacy 
into  Attica,  where,  having  ravaged  the  plain  country,  they 
set  about  fortifying  Deceleia,  a  place  about  one  hundred  and 
twenty  stadia  from  Athens,  and  in  view  of  it :  it  was  at  the 
same  distance  from  Boeotia,  and  commanded  all  the  sur- 
rounding country.  At  the  same  time  troops  were  sent  to 
Sicily ;  from  Lacedsemon  six  hundred  Neodamodes  and  se- 
lect Helots,  from  Baeotia  three  hundred,  from  Corinth  five 
hundred,  from  Sicyon  two  hundred,  in  all  sixteen  hundred 
hoplites.  They  embarked  in  merchantmen,  and  these  last 
were  convoyed  through  the  gulf  by  twenty-five  Corinthian 
triremes,  to  protect  them  from  the  Athenian  squadron  com- 
manded by  Conon,  at  Naupactus. 

When  Gylippus  returned  to  Syracuse,  he  and  Hermocra- 


SIEGE    OF    SYRACUSE.  245 

tes  joined  in  urging  the  people  to  risk  a  naval  action,  for  he 
intended  at  the  same  time  to  try  and  carry,  by  a  sudden 
attack,  the  forts  on  the  Plemmyrion.  Accordingly  thirty-five 
triremes  were  prepared  in  the  Great,  and  forty-five  in  the 
Lesser  Harbor,  in  which  last  the  docks  were;  and  at  night- 
fall Gylippus  led  all  his  forces  toward  the  Plemmyrion.  At 
a  given  signal  the  two  squadrons  moved  out,  the  former  ad- 
vancing toward  the  Athenian  fleet,  the  latter  making  round 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Harbor  to  aid  the  attack  on  the 
Plemmyrion.  The  Athenians  got  ready  in  haste  sixty  tri- 
remes, twenty-five  of  which  they  opposed  to  the  thirty-five, 
and  thirty-five  to  the  forty-five  of  the  enemy.  Gylippus 
meantime  had  reached  Plemmyrion  :  the  Athenian  soldiers 
there  being  mostly  down  on  the  beach  looking  at  the  sea 
fight,  he  carried  with  ease  the  three  forts,  in  which  he  found 
much  money  and  stores.  The  Athenians  had  the  advantage 
on  the  water ;  for  the  fleet  from  the  Lesser  Harbor,  though 
it  forced  the  passage  of  the  Great  one,  fell  into  disorder  and 
was  defeated,  and  eleven  ships  sunk.  The  remaining  triremes 
took  a  station  at  Plemmyrion  ;  and  the  Athenians,  who  drew 
their  supplies  mostly  from  Italy,  were  now  greatly  straitened  ; 
for  as  their  fleet  and  army  lay  in  the  interior  of  the  harbor, 
every  ship  that  came  had  to  fight  its  way. 

The  old  docks  of  Syracuse  were  in  the  Great  Harbor, 
near  the  city  and  the  Athenian  camp ;  and  to  have  a  secure 
station  for  their  triremes,  the  Syracusans  set  about  forming 
a  defence  by  driving  stakes  down  in  the  sea.  To  prevent 
this  work,  the  Athenians  brought  up  to  it  a  large  merchant- 
man furnished  with  bulwarks  and  wooden  towers.  Men  in 
boats  fastened  ropes  to  the  stakes,  and  divers  went  down  and 
sawed  them,  while  the  men  on  board  the  ship  kept  up  a  fight 
with  the  troops  at  the  docks.  In  this  way  most  of  the  stakes 
were  destroyed.  But  the  Syr;.cusans  had  driven  other  stakes 
below  the  water,  which  were  as  dangerous  as  sunken  rocks 
to  the  Athenian  ships  :  for  a  good  reward,  however,  divers 
went  down  and  cut  these  also.  The  Syracusans  drove  down 
21* 


246  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

more  stakes,  and   as  the  two  camps  were  close  together, 
hardly  a  day  passed  without  a  skirmish. 


CHAPTER  VIII.* 

DISTRESS     AT     ATHENS. VOYAGE     OF    DEMOSTHENES. SEA 

FIGHT    IN    THE  GREAT    HARBOR. ATTACK  ON  EPIPOLiE. 

RETREAT    PROPOSED. DEFEAT  OF    THE  ATHENIAN    FLEET. 

—  FLIGHT    OF    THE  ATHENIAN  ARMY. ITS    SURRENDER. 

While  the  Athenians  were  thus  beleaguering  Syracuse, 
their  own  city  was  in  nearly  a  similar  state  of  siege.  The 
Peloponnesian  garrison  in  Deceleia  wasted  the  country 
all  round  ;  the  cattle  were  taken ;  and  more  than  twenty 
thousand  slaves,  mostly  mechanics,  ran  away  from  their 
masters.  The  horses  were  lamed  and  worn  out  by  constant 
service  on  the  hard  soil,  and  the  men  were  exhausted  by 
keeping  guard  day  and  night  on  the  walls;  for  Athens  was 
now,  says  the  historian,  a  fortress  instead  of  a  city.  The 
provisions,  which  used  to  be  brought  from  Euboea  over  land 
by  Oropus  and  Deceleia,  had  now  to  be  carried  round  by 
sea  at  a  great  expense.  A  plan  to  enable  the  state  to  defray 
its  increased  expenditure  was  at  this  time  put  in  operation, 
namely,  to  levy  a  twentieth  t  on  imported  and  exported 
goods  in  all  the  ports  of  the  subject  allies,  instead  of  the 
tribute  which  they  had  hitherto  paid.  It  was  expected  that 
a  larger  revenue  might  thus  be  raised. 

Demosthenes,  on  coming  to  Zacynthus  and  Cephallenia, 
took  some  hoplites  on  board.  He  then  sailed  to  the  coast 
of  Acarnania,  where  he  was  joined  by  Eurymedon,  who 

*  Thuc.  vii.  26  to  the  end.    Diod.  xiii.  10—35.    Plut.  Nicias. 
t  That  is,  five  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 


SEA    FIGHT   IN    THE    GREAT    HARBOR.  247 

informed  him  of  the  loss  of  Plemmyrion.  Eurymedon 
proceeded  to  Corcyra,  and  required  from  the  people  twenty- 
five  ships,  and  hoplites  in  proportion ;  and  Demosthenes 
meantime  collected  slingers  and  dartmen  in  Acarnania. 
When  all  was  ready,  they  crossed  over  to  the  point  of  Japy- 
gia,  where  they  engaged  one  hundred  and  fifty  Messapian 
dartmen  :  at  Metapontum  they  obtained  three  hundred  more 
and  two  triremes.  The  Athenian  party,  who  had  just  gotten 
the  upper  hand  at  Thurii,  sent  seven  hundred  hoplites  and 
three  hundred  dartmen  to  aid  their  allies. 

The  whole  of  the  Siceliotes,  except  the  Acragantines, 
were  now  in  favor  of  the  Syracusans.  Camarina  sent 
them  five  hundred  hoplites,  three  hundred  archers,  and 
three  hundred  dartmen ;  Gela,  two  hundred  horse,  four 
hundred  dartmen,  and  five  ships.  Some  of  the  more  dis- 
tant towns,  as  the  Acragantines  refused  a  passage  to  their 
troops,  ventured  to  march  them  through  the  Sikelan  coun- 
try ;  but  at  the  desire  of  Nicias,  the  Sikelans  laid  an  am- 
bush, and  killed  eight  hundred  of  them;  the  remainder, 
fifteen  hundred  in  number,  reached  Syracuse. 

The  Syracusans,  hearing  of  the  approach  of  Demosthenes, 
resolved  to  hazard  another  sea  fight.  They  altered  the  form 
of  their  ships,  making  them  broad  and  strong  in  the  prows ; 
for  as  those  of  the  Athenians  were  narrow  and  weak,  and, 
for  want  of  sea-room  in  the  harbor,  would  not  be  able  to 
perform  their  usual  evolutions  of  sailing  round  and  through, 
they  expected  to  have  the  advantage  in  the  direct  shock. 
When  all  was  prepared,  Gylippus  led  out  his  army  and  at- 
tacked the  Athenian  wall  near  the  town,  while  the  troops 
from  the  Olympieion  came  and  assailed  it  on  the  other  side. 
The  Syracusans  and  their  allies  meantime  manned  eighty 
triremes  and  moved  out.  The  Athenians,  who  had  expected 
no  such  combined  attack,  hauled  out  seventy-five  triremes 
with  all  the  speed  they  could,  and  got  on  board.  The  day 
passed  away  in  slight  skirmishes,  the  Athenians  losing  one 
or  two  ships,  and  at  nightfall  both  retired.  Next  day  the 
Syracusans  did  not  stir,  and  Nicias  employed  it  in  mooring 


248  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

merchantmen  two  plethra  (200  feet)  asunder  in  front  of  a 
range  of  stakes,  which  he  had  made  to  form  a  kind  of  har- 
bor for  his  ships.  The  following  day  the  attack  by  land 
and  by  sea  was  renewed.  A  Corinthian  named  Ariston  ad- 
vised the  Syracusan  commanders  to  send  orders  into  the  city 
for  all  the  venders  of  provisions  to  come  down  and  hold  a 
market  on  the  beach,  and  then  to  let  the  men  go  ashore 
and  take  their  meal,  after  which  they  might  renew  the  en- 
gagement. This  advice  was  followed  :  the  Syracusan  fleet 
retired  toward  the  town ;  and  the  Athenians,  thinking  they 
would  fight  no  more  that  day,  went  back  to  their  camp  and 
dispersed.  Suddenly  the  Syracusan  fleet  appeared  again  ; 
for  as  soon  as  the  men  had  dined,  the  officers  had  made  them 
reembark.  The  Athenians  got  on  board  in  a  hurry,  most 
of  them  fasting.  Fearing  to  be  overcome  by  mere  fatigue, 
they  made  a  general  attack,  which  was  undauntedly  received : 
the  strong  prows  of  the  Syracusan  ships,  and  the  dartmen 
on  the  decks,  did  the  Athenians  much  damage,  and  they 
suffered  still  more  from  a  number  of  small  boats,  in  which 
the  Syracusans  sailed  about  their  vessels,  casting  darts  at 
the  sailors.  At  length  the  advantage  remained  with  the  Syr- 
acusans, and  the  Athenians  retired  through  the  intervals  in 
their  line  of  merchantmen.  As  leaden  dolphins  were  hung 
from  the  yards  of  these  vessels,  which  would  sink  any  ship 
into  which  they  were  let  fall,  the  Syracusans  halted  when 
they  reached  this  line.  Two  of  their  ships  which  ventured 
in  were  destroyed.  The  Athenians  had  seven  ships  sunk, 
and  several  disabled.  The  Syracusans  raised  trophies  for 
both  the  sea  fights,  and  were  now  quite  elate  with  hope. 

But  great  was  their  dismay  when  shortly  after  they  be- 
held Demosthenes  and  Euryrnedon  enter  the  harbor  with 
seventy-three  triremes,  carrying  five  thousand  hoplites, 
with  dartmen,  slingers  and  archers  in  proportion,  and  all 
needful  stores.  Demosthenes,  an  officer  of  great  skill, 
as  soon  as  he  saw  the  state  of  affairs,  became  sensible  that 
there  was  no  room  for  delay.  He  resolved  to  make  one  at- 
tempt, and  if  that  should  prove  a  failure,  to  take  home  the 


ATTACK    ON    EPIPOLiE.  249 

army,  which  Athens  could  not  afford  to  lose.  The  wall  of 
the  Syracusans  to  Epipolae  he  perceived  was  single,  and 
could  easily  be  carried  if  Epipolae  were  first  occupied ;  he 
therefore  advised  an  attempt  to  take  this  place.  He  first 
ravaged  the  lands  about  the  Anapus,  and  as  the  Syracusans 
did  not  come  out,  he  ventured  to  assail  the  wall ;  but  his 
troops  were  driven  off,  and  the  machines  burnt.  Having 
gained  over  to  his  opinion  Nicias  and  the  other  generals, 
he  now  prepared  for  his  attack  on  Epipolae.  Making  the 
men  take  provisions  with  them  for  five  days,  and  taking  the 
carpenters  and  masons,  and  all  things  requisite  for  fortifi- 
cation, and  leaving  Nicias  to  guard  the  works,  he  himself, 
Eurymedon,  and  Menander,  led  out  the  army  at  the  time 
of  first  sleep,  and  began  to  ascend  at  Euryalus.  They  took 
a  post  that  was  there,  slaying  some  of  the  guards ;  but  the 
rest  fled  and  gave  the  alarm.  There  were  three  camps  on 
Epipolae,  one  of  the  Syracusans,  the  other  Siceliotes  and  the 
allies,  and  all  came  to  the  relief.  The  Athenians  at  first 
drove  them  back,  and  advanced  rapidly;  at  length  the 
Boeotians  met  and  repelled  them.  The  Athenians  then 
turned  and  fled  in  confusion.  It  was  bright  moonlight ;  but 
this  only  added  to  the  difficulty,  for  though  they  could  see 
plainly  the  forms  of  the  men,  they  could  not  tell  friend  from 
foe :  the  paean,  or  war-cry,  of  the  Argives  and  Corcyraeans, 
who  were  Dorians,  being  similar  to  that  of  the  enemies, 
contributed  to  augment  their  terror.  Many  cast  themselves 
down  the  precipices,  and  perished.  Of  those  who  reached 
the  plain  through  the  pass,  such  as  belonged  to  the  army  of 
Nicias,  as  they  knew  the  country,  made  their  way  to  the 
camp,  while  the  new-comers  wandered  about,  and  in  the 
morning  were  cut  to  pieces  by  the  Sicilian  horse. 

When  the  Athenians  had  received  and  buried  their  dead, 
Demosthenes  urged  immediate  departure ;  it  was  now  the 
sickly  season ;  they  were  encamped  by  a  marsh ;  the  troops 
were  murmuring  ;  there  appeared  little  chance  of  success  ; 
and  they  could  serve  their  country  far  better  at  home.  Ni- 
cias opposed  this  measure  :  he  said  he  knew  the  affairs  of 

FP 


250  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  enemy  to  be  in  a  worse  condition  than  their  own;  there 
was  a  party  in  Syracuse  favorable  to  them,  with  whom  he 
had  intelligence ;  he  knew  too  well  the  character  of  those 
whom  he  served,  and  that  many  of  those  who  were  now 
most  clamorous  to  depart,  would  on  their  return  be  the  first 
to  charge  the  generals  with  having  taken  bribes  from  the 
enemy ;  for  his  part,  he  would  rather  perish  in  battle  than 
be  judicially  murdered  at  home.  Demosthenes  then  said, 
that,  if  they  were  to  stay,  it  would  be  better  to  retire  to 
Thapsus  or  Catana,  whence  they  might  ravage  the  country, 
and  where  they  would  have  sea-room  for  their  fleet  to  dis- 
play its  superiority  in  evolutions,  instead  of  being  cooped 
up  in  a  harbor.  Eurymedon  was  of  the  same  opinion  ;  but 
as  Nicias  seemed  resolved  to  stay,  they  gave  way  to  him. 

Gylippus,  who  had  gone  through  Sicily  collecting  troops, 
now  entered  Syracuse  with  an  army.  The  Athenian  gene- 
rals, seeing  the  Syracusans  thus  reenforced,  while  their  own 
army  was  melting  away  with  disease,  resolved,  Nicias  no 
longer  opposing,  to  retire  in  secrecy.  All  things  were  pre- 
pared, when  unfortunately  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  took  place. 
Terrified  at  this  phenomenon,  the  soldiers  called  on  their 
generals  to  delay ;  the  soothsayers  pronounced  that  they 
must  now  remain  twenty-seven  days  longer,  and  Nicias, 
superstitious  as  the  vulgar,  declared  against  all  deliberation 
till  that  period  had  expired. 

The  Syracusans  were  resolved,  if  possible,  not  to  let  them 
escape ;  they  manned  seventy-six  triremes,  and  while  these 
came  forth  in  order  of  battle,  the  land  forces  assailed  the 
Athenian  wall.  The  Athenians  advanced  with  eighty-six 
triremes.  Eurymedon,  who  commanded  on  the  right,  ex- 
tended his  line  near  the  shore  to  enclose  the  Syracusan 
ships ;  but  these  being  victorious  in  the  centre,  caught  him 
in  the  recess  of  the  harbor,  destroyed  him  and  all  his 
ships,  and  then  turned  and  chased  the  rest  of  the  fleet. 
Gylippus,  seeing  the  rout  of  the  Athenian  fleet,  led  a  part 
of  his  forces  down  to  the  beach  to  cut  off  those  who  might 
be  escaping  to  shore.     As  they  advanced   somewhat  disor- 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  ATHENIAN  FLEET.        251 

derly,  the  Etruscan  mercenaries,  who  were  stationed  there, 
put  them  to  flight,  and  drove  them  into  the  Lysimelian 
Marsh.  More  troops  came  to  aid  on  both  sides,  and  the 
victory  finally  remained  with  the  Athenians,  whose  ships 
now  came  safely  to  land.  Eighteen  triremes,  with  all  on 
board,  had  been  destroyed  by  the  Syracusans.  As  the  wind 
was  now  blowing  toward  where  the  Athenian  ships  lay,  an 
attempt  was  made  to  burn  them,  by  filling  an  old  merchant- 
ship  with  combustibles,  setting  fire  to  them,  and  letting  it 
drift  along.  The  Athenians,  however,  contrived  to  keep  it 
off  till  it  was  burnt  out. 

Elate  with  their  naval  victory,  the  Syracusans  now  med- 
itated nothing  less  than  the  total  destruction  of  the  Athe- 
nian fleet  and  army.  They  therefore  closed  up  the  mouth 
of  the  harbor,  by  mooring  triremes  and  other  smaller  ves- 
sels transversely  in  it.  The  Athenian  commanders,  seeing 
that  they  would  now  be  left  without  provisions,  —  for  they 
had  sent  orders  to  Catana  to  stop  the  supply  from  thence, 
as  they  were  so  soon  to  proceed  thither,  —  held  a  coun- 
cil, to  which  they  summoned  most  of  the  officers  of  the 
army.  The  result  of  their  deliberation  was  to  abandon  the 
upper  walls,  and  to  occupy  a  fort,  where  the  ships  were,  just 
large  enough  to  contain  the  stores  and  the  sick,  and  for  the 
rest  of  the  army  to  get  aboard  all  the  vessels  they  had,  and 
try  to  force  a  passage  to  Catana ;  if  this  should  fail,  to  burn 
the  ships,  and  make  their  way  thither,  if  possible,  by  land. 
They  got  ready  one  hundred  and  ten  vessels  ;  and  as  the 
men  were  dispirited  by  the  late  defeat,  and  at  the  same  time 
anxious  to  engage,  from  want  of  provisions,  Nicias,  whose 
courage  and  vigor  rose  in  adversity,  addressed  them  gen- 
erally, and  each  trierarch  in  particular,  exhorting  them  to 
valor  and  perseverance ;  they  then  embarked,  and,  led  by 
Demosthenes,  Menander,  and  Euthydemus,  rowed  for  the 
mouth  of  the  harbor. 

The  Syracusans  got  under  weigh  with  an  equal  number 
of  ships,  the  Corinthians  occupying  the  centre.  A  part  of 
their  fleet  went  to   the   defence  of  the  entrance,  the  rest 


252  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

staid  about  the  harbor.  The  Athenians  beat  the  former 
at  the  first  shock  :  they  then  set  about  loosing  the  vessels 
that  blocked  up  the  passage ;  and  while  they  were  thus  em- 
ployed, the  rest  of  the  enemy's  ships  came  up,  and  the  en- 
gagement became  general.  It  was  the  most  obstinate  that 
had  yet  been  fought.  The  Athenians,  having  every  thing 
at  stake,  made  desperate  efforts;  the  Syracusans,  knowing 
that  if  the  fleet  were  destroyed,  their  enemies  would  be  in 
their  power,  and  stimulated  by  the  desire  of  fame  and  ven- 
geance, combated  with  equal  energy.  The  Athenian  troops 
on  shore  viewed  the  conflict  with  the  most  intense  interest, 
and  as  their  proximity  prevented  them  from  seeing  the  whole 
at  once,  shouts  of  joy  and  encouragement  arose  from  those 
who  saw  Athenian  ships  victorious,  cries  of  grief  from  those 
who  saw  them  yielding.  At  length,  the  whole  Athenian 
fleet  was  beheld  in  flight  for  the  shore,  and  that  of  the  ene- 
mies in  close  pursuit.  Then  rose  to  heaven  a  loud  cry  of 
grief,  and  all  rushed  to  the  beach  to  aid  in  saving  the  ships. 
The  Syracusans  carried  away  the  wrecks  and  the  bodies 
of  the  Athenian  dead,  and  raised  a  trophy.  So  utterly  were 
the  Athenians  dejected  with  their  defeat,  that  they  never 
sent,  as  was  the  invariable  usage,  to  demand  the  bodies  of 
the  slain  for  sepulture. 

It  was  resolved  to  depart  that,  very  night,  and  Demos- 
thenes proposed,  as  they  had  sixty  triremes  left,  while 
those  of  the  enemy  were  reduced  to  less  than  fifty,  to  get 
on  board  and  force  the  passage.  Nicias  agreed  at  once  to 
this  judicious  plan  ;  but  the  sailors,  dismayed  by  the  pre- 
ceding defeat,  positively  refused  to  embark.  No  course  now 
remained  but  the  hazardous  one  of  a  land  march,  for  which 
they  began  to  prepare.  The  judicious  Hermocrates,  sus- 
pecting that  the  Athenians  would  attempt  to  depart  that 
night,  proposed  to  the  Syracusan  government  to  march  out 
all  their  forces,  and  obstruct  the  roads  and  occupy  the  passes. 
They  saw  the  wisdom  of  what  he  said ;  but,  as  it  was  a  feast 
of  Hercules,  and  the  people,  elate  with  victory,  were  drink- 
ing  and   enjoying  themselves,  they  declined  proposing   to 


FLIGHT  OF  THE  ATHENIAN  ARMY.        253 

them  to  resume  their  arms.  Hermocrates  then,  lest  the 
Athenians  should  escape,  sent,  as  soon  as  it  grew  dark,  some 
of  his  friends  to  their  camp,  who,  when  they  came  within 
hearing,  called  out  to  tell  Nicias  not  to  depart  that  night, 
as  the  roads  were  beset.  As  Nicias  had  intelligence  with  a 
party  in  the  town,  the  warning  was  supposed  to  come  from 
them,  and  the  stratagem  succeeded.  It  was  now  resolved 
to  remain  the  following  day  also,  that  the  soldiers  might 
be  fully  prepared. 

The  next  day  Gylippus  set  out,  and  stopped  up  the  roads 
and  guarded  the  fords  where  the  Athenians  were  expected 
to  pass.  The  Syracusans  also  got  on  board  their  vessels, 
and  came  and  dragged  off  some  of  the  Athenian  triremes, 
and  burned  a  few  more  of  them. 

When  on  the  following  day  the  retreat  commenced,  the 
appearance  presented  was  one  of  the  most  deplorable  that 
could  be  conceived.  The  dead  were  left  unburied  ;  the  sick 
and  wounded  abandoned  to  the  barbarity  of  the  justly-in- 
censed Syracusans.  In  vain  they  implored  their  friends, 
relatives,  or  comrades  to  take  them  with  them ;  compelled  by 
necessity  to  leave  them  behind,  they  groaned  and  shed  tears 
as  they  departed.  The  appearance  of  the  retreating  army, 
says  the  historian,  was  like  that  of  a  population  flying  from 
a  besieged  town  :  the  number  of  the  fugitives  amounted  to 
forty  thousand.  The  horsemen  and  hoplites  had,  contrary 
to  custom,  to  carry  their  own  provisions,  for  the  slaves  had 
all  along  been  deserting,  and  now  did  so  more  than  ever,  so 
that  they  either  had  no  servants,  or  could  not  trust  them. 
The  quantity  of  provisions,  however,  which  they  had  was 
trifling. 

Ere  they  departed,  Nicias  addressed  an  exhortation  to  the 
army  to  raise  their  spirits.  They  then  set  forward  in  two 
divisions,  Nicias  leading  the  first,  Demosthenes  the  last,  the 
baggage  and  servants  being  placed  in  the  centre  of  each  di- 
vision. Their  plan  was,  instead  of  marching  for  Catana,  to 
take  an  opposite  direction,  and  get  into  the  country  of  the 
friendly  Sikelans.  They  forced  the  passage  of  the  Anapus, 
22 


254  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

intending  to  move  up  along  its  valley  ;  and  having  marched 
forty  stadia,  incessantly  harassed  by  the  Syracusan  horse 
and  light  troops,  they  bivouacked  on  an  eminence.  Early 
next  day  they  set  forth  and  marched  twenty  stadia  in'.o  a 
plain,  where  they  proposed  to  take  provisions  from  the  houses 
and  to  lay  in  a  supply  of  water,  as  the  country  before  them, 
for  some  distance,  was  arid.  The  road  now  led  over  a  hill ; 
it  was  narrow,  with  precipices  on  each  side,  and  the  Syra- 
cusans  had  occupied  it  and  walled  it  across.  The  Athe- 
nians, next  day,  were  so  harassed  by  the  horse  and  light 
troops  that  they  were  obliged  to  return  to  their  camp.  On 
the  following  morning  they  advanced,  and  tried  to  force  the 
pass,  but  were  driven  back.  A  thunder-storm,  a  usual  oc- 
currence at  that  time  of  the  year,  (it  was  autumn,)  came  on 
and  aided  to  deject  them  ;  and  while  they  halted,  Gylippus 
detached  a  part  of  his  troops  to  seize  and  wall  the  road  be- 
hind them.  They,  however,  sent  a  party  who  prevented 
them,  and  the  army  descended  and  bivouacked  in  the  plain. 

The  following  day  they  marched  in  another  direction;  but 
they  suffered  so  much  from  the  horse  and  light  troops  that 
they  proceeded  but  five  or  six  stadia.  In  the  night,  leaving  a 
great  many  fires  burning  to  deceive  the  enemy,  they  turned 
back,  and  made  for  the  sea.  As  is  usual  in  such  cases, 
terror  and  anxiety  caused  much  confusion,  especially  in  the 
division  of  Demosthenes  ;  but  they  reached  the  sea,  and  then 
taking  the  road  to  Helorus,  went  along,  intending  when 
they  came  to  the  River  Cacyparis  to  march  up  it  into  the 
interior,  where  they  expected  to  be  joined  by  the  Sikelans. 
They  found  here  a  party  of  Syracusans  securing  the  ford, 
whom  they  drove  off;  and  having  crossed,  marched  for  an- 
other stream,  named  the  Erineiis. 

In  the  morning,  when  the  Syracusans  found  the  Athe- 
nians gone,  they  accused  Gylippus  of  treachery.  They  then 
pursued,  and  about  dinner  time  came  up  with  the  division 
of  Demosthenes,  which  their  horse  surrounded.  Demosthe- 
nes halted,  and  drew  up  his  men ;  but  as  they  were  in  a 
place  which  was  walled  round  and  filled  with  olive-trees, 


SURRENDER    OF    THE    ATHENIAN    ARMY.  255 

the  Syracusans  remained  without  and  kept  up  a  constant 
discharge  of  missiles.  Having  harassed  them  thus  all 
through  the  day,  Gylippus  sent  in  the  evening  a  herald,  offer- 
ing freedom  to  any  of  the  islanders  who  would  come  over  ; 
an  offer  which,  to  their  honor,  but  few  accepted.  The 
whole  division  of  six  thousand  men  at  length  surrendered, 
on  condition  that  no  one  should  be  put  to  death  in  any  man- 
ner. They  were  desired  to  cast  their  money  into  shields 
turned  upside  down  to  receive  it,  four  of  which  it  filled :  they 
were  then  conducted  to  Syracuse. 

Nicias,  who,  from  the  rapidity  of  his  march,  was  at  this 
time  one  hundred  and  fifty  stadia  in  advance,  had  crossed 
the  Erineus,  and  taken  a  position  on  a  rising  ground. 
When  the  Syracusans  came  up  with  him  next  day,  they  told 
the  fate  of  the  other  division,  and  called  on  him  also  to  sur- 
render. He  demanded  to  be  suffered  to  send  a  horseman  to 
ascertain  the  truth.  This  was  granted,  and  on  the  return 
of  his  messenger  he  offered,  on  the  part  of  the  Athenians, 
to  pay  the  Syracusans  the  costs  of  the  war,  leaving  hos- 
tages a  man  for  every  talent.  These  terms  were  refused,  and 
an  attack  kept  up  on  them  all  through  the  day.  In  the 
night  they  attempted  to  retire  as  before,  but  they  were  per- 
ceived, and  the  war-cry  raised ;  they  therefore  remained 
quiet,  all  but  three  hundred  men,  who  broke  through  and 
got  off  for  the  present. 

Early  next  day  Nicias  again  set  forth.  His  army  was 
harassed  as  before  by  the  horse  and  the  light  troops ;  but 
they  hoped,  if  they  could  reach  and  pass  the  River  Assina- 
rus,  they  should  be  more  secure.  When  they  came  to  the 
river,  urged  by  thirst  and  the  desire  to  get  over,  they  rushed 
into  it  in  tumultuous  confusion ;  and  as  they  were  collected 
in  dense  masses,  the  missiles  of  the  enemies  proved  fatal  to 
numbers:  the  Syracusans  also  crossed  over  and  occupied 
the  steep  bank  on  the  other  side,  and  the  Peloponnesians 
went  down  and  killed  many  of  those  who  were  in  the  wa- 
ter. The  river  was  turbid  with  mud  and  gore,  and  yet 
thirst  impelled  them  to  drink.     Nicias,  seeing  that  escape 


256  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

was  now  hopeless,  surrendered  unconditionally  to  Gylippus  ; 
for  as  he  had  always  been  the  friend  of  Lacedaemon,  he  had 
reason  to  expect  more  favor  from  the  Spartans  than  the 
Syracusans.  Gylippus  then  ordered  quarter  to  be  given, 
and  the  prisoners  to  be  led  to  Syracuse.  The  three  hun- 
dred who  had  escaped  were  pursued  and  brought  back ;  but 
as  many  had  been  slain,  and  many  were  secreted  by  the  sol- 
diers to  be  sold  for  slaves,  the  number  led  to  Syracuse  was 
not  considerable. 

It  was  the  wish  of  Gylippus  to  have  the  glory  of  conduct- 
ing to  Sparta  the  two  Athenian  generals ;  but  a  party  at 
Syracuse,  and  the  Corinthians  among  the  allies,  were  bent 
on  their  destruction.  It  is  also  said  that  those  who  had 
been  in  intelligence  with  Nicias  urged  his  execution,  lest 
he  might  give  information.  A  demagogue  named  Eury- 
cles  *  proposed  that  a  festival,  to  be  called  the  Assinarian, 
from  the  name  of  the  river,  should  be  annually  held  on  the 
day  that  Nicias  was  taken  ;  that  the  Athenian  and  Siceliote 
prisoners  should  be  shut  up  in  the  quarries  (laT6tuiai)  of 
Epipolae,  the  rest  sold  for  slaves,  and  the  two  generals  put 
to  death.  Hermocrates  in  vain  advised  moderation  and 
humanity  :  the  sentence  was  passed  and  executed. 

The  entire  of  the  prisoners,  seven  thousand  in  number, 
were  detained  for  about  seventy  days  in  the  quarries,  ex- 
posed without  any  roof  over  them  to  the  heat  of  the  day 
and  the  chill  of  the  autumnal  nights.  They  were  allowed 
each  two  cotyls  (about  a  pound)  of  barley-meal  and  one 
(half  a  pint)  of  water  a  day;  but  the  stench  in  so  confined 
a  place  from  the  bodies  of  those  who  died  and  from  other 
causes,  and  the  various  evils  which  they  endured,  rapidly 
thinned  their  numbers.  At  the  end  of  seventy  days,  all  but 
the  Athenians  and  Siceliotes  and  Italiotes  were  taken  out 
and  sold  for  slaves.     What  with  these,  and  those  who  had 

*  Diodorus  calls  him  Diodes.  This  writer  gives  a  long  speech  of 
an  old  man  named  Nicolaus  (who  had  lost  two  sons  in  the  war)  in 
favor  of  mercy,  and  orte  of  Gylippus  against  it.  His  authority  was 
probably  Timaeus  or  Philistus. 


REVOLT    OF    THE    ALLIES.  257 

been  secreted  by  the  soldiers  and  sold,  and  those  who  had 
made  their  escape,  most  of  the  towns  in  the  island  were 
filled  with  Grecian  slaves.  Such  as  escaped  or  were  libe- 
rated found  a  friendly  reception  at  Catana. 

It  is  said  *  that  many  persons  some  time  after  waited  on 
the  tragic  poet  Euripides,  and  assured  him  that,  by  singing 
in  Sicily  such  of  his  verses  as  they  recollected,  some  of 
them  had  obtained  kind  treatment  in  slavery ;  others  had 
procured  food  as  they  wandered  through  the  country  after 
the  battle.  If  the  anecdote  be  true,  as  it  probably  is,  this 
effect  of  his  verses  should  have  given  more  genuine  pleas- 
ure to  the  poet  than  the  most  rapturous  applauses  of  the 
crowded  theatre. 


CHAPTER    IX.t 


REVOLT    OF    THE    ALLIES.  WAR    ON    THE    COAST  OF    ASIA. 

INTRIGUES    OF    ALC1BIADES. REVOLUTION    AT    ATHENS. 

When  intelligence  reached  Athens  of  the  disaster  in 
Sicily,  the  people  at  first  refused  to  give  credit  to  it ;  but 
when  it  could  no  longer  be  doubted,  forgetting  their  own 
share  in  it,  they  vented  their  rage  on  the  orators  and  sooth- 
sayers who  had  deceived  them  with  false  promises  and  ex- 
pectations. They  soon,  however,  began  to  reflect  seriously 
on  their  condition  :  they  were  now  almost  without  ships, 
money,  or  stores  ;  the  flower  of  their  youth  was  lost  in  Sicily  ; 
they  expected  every  hour  to  see  the  Syracusan  fleet  before 
the  Piraeeus,  their  original  enemies  assailing  them  on  every 
side,  and  all  their  allies  in  revolt.  They,  however,  lost  not 
courage :  they  appointed  a  council  of  elders  to  deliberate  on 

*  Plut.  Nicias,  29. 
t  Thuc.  viii.  1—98.    Diod.  xiii.  36—38.     Plut.  Alcibiades. 


22 


G  G 


258  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

what  was  to  be  done ;  and  at  their  suggestion  they  provided 
timber  and  built  ships,  raised  a  fort  at  Sunion  to  protect  the 
corn-ships,  recalled  the  garrison  left  by  Demosthenes  in 
Laconia  and  some  others,  and  did  every  thing  to  keep  the 
allies  in  their  obedience.  All  the  other  Greeks  who  had 
dreaded  the  increasing  power  of  the  Athenians,  deemed  the 
time  to  be  come  for  crushing  them.  Those  who  had  been 
hitherto  neuter  now  declared  themselves  ;  the  Lacedaemoni- 
ans saw,  as  they  thought,  the  supremacy  of  Greece  within 
their  grasp.  They  issued  directions  to  their  allies  to  build 
seventy-five  ships,  engaging  to  furnish  twenty-five  themselves, 
and  made  every  preparation  for  a  vigorous  campaign  in  the 
spnng.* 

Meantime,  (Ol.  92,  1,)  as  the  Athenians  had  apprehend- 
ed, their  allies  began  to  meditate  revolt.  The  Eubceans  and 
Lesbians  sent  deputies  to  treat  with  Agis  at  Deceleia.  The 
Chians  and  Erythrseans  sent  direct  to  Sparta.  An  envoy 
from  Tissaphernes,  the  Persian  satrap  f  of  Lydia,  accompa- 
nied them,  to  propose  an  alliance  with  Lacedsemon,  on  the 
part  of  the  Great  King.  At  the  same  time  arrived  envoys 
from  Pharnabazus,  the  satrap  of  the  country  about  the  Hel- 
lespont, desiring  that  a  fleet  should  be  sent  to  aid  revolt 
from  Athens  in  his  province.  It  was  debated  for  some  time 
whither  the  fleet  should  first  be  sent :  at  length,  by  the  in- 
fluence of  Alcibiades  with  Endius,  one  of  the  ephors,  the 
preference  was  given  to  the  Chians  and  Erythrseans ;  and  as 
they  had  sixty  ships  of  their  own,  it  was  voted  to  send  forty 
to  join  them,  ten  of  which  were  to  sail  immediately. 

The  Spartans  delaying  as  usual,  the  Chians,  afraid  lest 
their  designs  might  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Athenians, 
sent  again  to  urge  them.  Directions  were  therefore  given 
to  haul  the  ships  in  the  Corinthian  Gulf  across  the  Isthmus. 
As  these,  with  those  collected  by  Agis  to  aid  the  Lesbians, 
made   thirty-nine,  it    was   resolved   that   one  half  of  them 

*  This  second  part  of  the  Peloponnesian  war  is  also  called  the  Dece- 
leian  war. 

t  The  Persian  Satrap  answers  to  the  Turkish  Pasha. 


REVOLT    OF    THE    ALLIES.  259 

should  proceed  at  once  to  Chios.  But  as  this  happened  to 
be  the  time  of  the  Isthmian  games,  the  Corinthians  would 
not  go  till  they  were  ended  ;  and  the  Athenians,  coming  to 
them,  got  proofs  of  the  designs  of  the  Chians,  which  they 
already  suspected. 

When  the  games  were  over,  twenty-one  ships  sailed  from 
the  port  of  Cenchrea) ;  but  on  the  appearance  of  an  Athenian 
fleet  of  equal  force,  their  crews  lost  courage,  and  fled  to  a 
port  named  Peiraeon,  on  the  verge  of  the  Corinthian  territory, 
toward  Epidaurus.  The  Athenians  attacked  them,  killed 
their  commander,  and  damaged  several  of  the  ships ;  then 
leaving  a  few  ships  to  watch  them,  they  retired,  and  en- 
camped in  a  neighboring  islet.  The  Corinthians  came 
to  aid  the  fleet,  and  as  the  country  thereabouts  was  desert, 
they  were  at  first  going  to  burn  the  ships ;  but  they  hauled 
them  up  and  guarded  them. 

No  ships  had  yet  sailed  from  Laconia,  and,  but  for  the  in- 
fluence of  Alcibiades  with  Endius,  none  would  have  sailed. 
He  urged  on  him  so  much  the  necessity  of  getting  the 
Chians  and  others  to  revolt  before  they  heard  of  what  had 
just  occurred,  that  five  ships  under  Chalcideus  were  sent  out. 
Alcibiades  accompanied  him ;  they  landed  at  Corycos,  on 
the  coast  of  Asia,  and  having  there  consulted  with  their 
Chian  friends,  by  their  advice  sailed  at  once  to  the  island, 
and  by  their  vaunts  of  the  great  fleet  which  was  coming, 
induced  the  people  to  revolt.  The  people  of  Erythrae  and 
Clazomenae  followed  their  example. 

When  news  reached  Athens  of  the  revolt  of  Chios,  the 
anxiety  was  extreme ;  and  as  the  danger  was  esteemed  to  be 
as  great  as  if  an  enemy  were  before  the  Piraeeus,  it  was  held 
to  justify  an  application  of  the  thousand  talents  which  had 
been  set  apart  in  the  beginning  of  the  war.  Every  effort 
was  made  to  collect  a  powerful  fleet  to  prevent  a  total  defec- 
tion of  the  allies.  Eight  ships  under  Strombichides  were 
sent  off  forthwith  to  the  coast  of  Asia ;  but  he  was  obliged 
to  take  refuge  at  Samos  from  a  superior  force  under  Chal- 
cideus.    The  Teians  now  revolted,  and  Alcibiades  soon  in- 


260  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

duced  the  Milesians  to  do  the  same :  Lebedos  also  fell  off 
at  the  instance  of  the  Chians.  The  war  between  Athens 
and  the  Peloponnesian  confederacy  now  assumes  a  new  ap- 
pearance :  it  is  entirely  naval ;  the  scene  is  transferred  to 
the  coast  of  Asia,  and  the  Persian  government  takes  a  deep 
interest  in  it. 

At  this  time  a  treaty  of  alliance  was  made  by  Tissapher- 
nes,  in  the  name  of  his  master,  with  the  Lacedaemonians. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Demos  at  Samos,  discovering  that 
the  upper  ranks  in  the  island  were  planning  a  change,  rose 
up,  killed  two  hundred  and  expelled  four  hundred  of  them, 
seized  and  divided  their  houses  and  lands,  and  even  made 
a  decree  never  to  intermarry  with  them.*  This  event  was 
of  course  highly  favorable  to  the  Athenian  interest  in  these 
parts. 

Meantime  the  fleet  at  the  Corinthian  Peirason  came  out, 
beat  the  Athenian  fleet  of  equal  force  that  was  watching  it, 
and  got  into  Cenchreae.  Astyochus  came  from  Sparta  to 
take  the  command,  and  the  ships  ran  out  and  sailed  at  dif- 
ferent times  to  the  coast  of  Asia.  The  Athenian  fleet  in 
that  part  was  also  gradually  augmented,  and  soon  began  to 
assume  its  wonted  superiority.  Lesbos,  where  the  Chians 
had  reduced  Methymne,  the  only  town  faithful  to  Athens, 
was  recovered,  and  Clazomenae  returned  to  her  former  con- 
dition. An  Athenian  fleet  of  twenty  ships  lay  at  the  Isle 
of  Lade  blockading  the  port  of  Miletus  j  and  in  a  landing 
made  from  it,  a  victory  was  gained  over  Chalcideus,  who 
fell  in  the  action. 

As  the  Athenians  were  now  so  strong  at  sea,  they  re- 
solved to  attempt  the  reduction  of  Chios.  The  admirals 
Leon  and  Diomedon  occupied  the  CEnussian  Islands  before 
it,  and  made  descents  from  them,  from  Lesbos  and  the  coast 
of  Erythrae.  The  Chians,  every  where  defeated,  were  obliged 
to  shut  themselves  up  in  their  town,  leaving  their  rich  lands 

*  This  looks  like  retaliation  for  a  similar  act  on  the  part  of  the  aristo- 
crats, when  the  power  was  theirs. 


WAR  ON  THE  COAST  OF  ATTICA.         261 

to  be  ravaged.  Chios  was  the  most  wealthy  and  fertile  of 
all  the  islands;  since  the  Medic  war  it  had  seen  no  enemy, 
and  it  therefore  now  presented  the  greater  quantity  of  plun- 
der. As  of  course  there  was  an  Athenian  party  in  it  who 
were  planning  a  surrender,  the  principal  men  sent  to  call 
Astyochus,  who  was  at  Erythrae,  and  he  came  with  four 
ships  to  their  aid. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  summer  there  came  from  Athens 
forty-eight  triremes  under  Phrynichus,  Onomacles,  and  Sci- 
ronides,  carrying  one  thousand  Athenian,  fifteen  hundred 
Argive,  and  one  thousand  other  hoplites.  Having  touched 
at  Samos,  they  proceeded  and  landed  near  Miletus.  Eight 
hundred  Milesians,  the  Peloponnesians  of  Chalcideus,  and 
some  mercenaries  in  the  pay  of  Tissaphernes,  advanced  to 
engage  them :  the  satrap  himself  was  at  hand  with  his  cav- 
alry. In  this  action  it  was  remarked,  that  the  Ionians  beat 
the  Dorians,  for  the  Milesians  defeated  the  Argives,  while 
the  Athenians  routed  the  Peloponnesians.  Victory  remained 
with  the  Athenians,  who  forthwith  began  to  vallate  the  isth- 
mus in  which  Miletus  stood. 

But  that  very  evening  a  fleet  of  twenty-two  Sicilian  ships 
under  Hermocrates,  and  thirty-three  Peloponnesian  under 
Theramenes,  arrived  off  Miletus.  They  stopped  in  the  bay 
at  a  place  named  Teichiussa,  and  Alcibiades,  who  had  been 
in  the  battle,  hastened  down  and  implored  them  to  aid  Mi- 
letus without  delay,  or  all  Ionia  would  be  lost.  They  there- 
fore prepared  for  action  in  the  morning;  but  Phrynichus, 
having  seen  their  superiority  in  force,  would  not  let  his 
colleagues  engage  them,  and  the  Athenians  had  retired  in 
the  night  to  Samos.  The  Argives  were  so  mortified  by  their 
defeat  that  they  now  went  home. 

It  were  tedious  to  enumerate  the  various  transactions 
which  now  took  place.  Reinforcements  arrived  on  both 
sides,  and  the  Athenians  in  particular  became  so  strong  that 
they  were  able  to  divide  their  forces,  sending  thirty  triremes 
with  troops  to  Chios,  and  retaining  seventy-four  at  Samos 
for  another  attempt  on  Miletus. 


262  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

The  aristocratic  party  at  Lesbos  having  opened  a  com- 
munication with  Astyochus,  he  had  hopes  of  gaining  over 
that  island  ;  but  the  Corinthians  and  the  other  allies  were 
adverse  to  any  attempt  on  it,  on  account  of  the  former  failure. 
He  then  proposed  to  the  Chians  to  join  in  it ;  they,  however, 
fearing  to  diminish  their  forces  at  home,  declined.  Pedaritus, 
the  Lacedaemonian  commander  at  Chios,  joined  in  the  re- 
fusal ;  and  Astyochus,  highly  offended,  sailed  away  to  Mile- 
tus, vowing  not  to  assist  them  when  they  should  need  it. 
The  Athenians  now  fortified  Delphinion,  a  strong  place  on 
the  coast  not  far  from  the  town  of  Chios.  As  was  usual 
when  an  enemy  had  thus  fixed  himself  in  a  country,  the 
slaves  began  to  run  away  in  great  numbers.  The  Chians, 
we  are  told,  had  more  slaves  than  any  other  people  except 
the  Lacedaemonians,  and  owing  to  their  number,  treated  them 
with  great  severity  ;  they  therefore  gladly  sought  refuge  with 
the  Athenians,  and  being  well  acquainted  with  the  country, 
were  able  to  do  much  mischief  to  their  former  masters. 
Pedaritus  and  the  Lacedaemonian  party  were  afraid  to  stir, 
on  account  of  the  strength  of  the  opposite  party.  He  sent 
to  Astyochus,  praying  him  to  come  to  his  aid  before  the 
fortification  of  Delphinion  was  completed ;  and  on  his 
refusal,  he  sent  to  complain  of  him  at  Lacedaemon.  In  con- 
sequence of  this  complaint,  as  a  fleet  of  twenty-seven  ships 
under  Antisthenes,  promised  to  Pharnabazus,  was  now  about 
to  sail,  eleven  commissioners  were  sent  out,  who  were  to  in- 
quire into  the  conduct  of  Astyochus,  and,  if  they  saw  reason, 
to  take  the  command  from  him  and  give  it  to  Antisthenes. 

This  fleet  having  taken  a  circuitous  route,  from  dread  of 
the  Athenians,  arrived  at  Caunos,  on  the  coast  of  Caria. 
Word  was  then  sent  to  Miletus  for  the  fleet  there  to  come 
and  join  it.  Astyochus,  who  was  now  at  length  going  to 
the  aid  of  Chios,  deemed  it  his  first  duty  to  proceed  to  Cau- 
nos. On  coming  to  Cuidos,  he  learned  that  the  Athenian 
admiral  Charminus  was  with  twenty  ships  on  the  look-out 
for  the  fleet  at  Caunos.  During  the  night  he  fell  in  with 
the  Athenians  near  the  Isle  of  Syme.     Charminus,  in  the 


INTRIGUES    OF    ALCIBIADES.  263 

morning,  seeing  only  the  left  of  the  Peloponnesian  fleet, 
which  was  dispersed,  and  taking  it  for  the  one  he  was  look- 
ing for,  attacked  it,  and  sunk  three  ships  and  disabled  some 
others ;  but  the  whole  fleet  soon  appeared  and  began  to 
surround  him,  and  he  fled  to  Halicarnassus  with  the  loss 
of  six  ships.  The  Peloponnesian  fleets  joined,  and  sailed  to 
Cnidos,  having  raised  a  trophy  on  Syme.  The  Athenian 
fleet  from  Samos  came  and  offered  battle,  but  the  Pelopon- 
nesians  would  not  come  out. 

While  the  Peloponnesians  were  at  Cnidos,  the  aristocratic 
party  in  the  Dorian  island  of  Rhodes  sent  to  invite  them 
thither  ;  and  as  they  hoped,  if  they  gained  to  their  side  this 
wealthy  island,  they  should  be  independent  of  Tissaphernes, 
with  whom  they  were  not  on  very  good  terms,  they  sailed 
thither  with  ninety-four  ships,  and  the  island  forthwith 
revolted.  The  Athenian  fleet  came  from  Samos  too  late 
to  prevent  the  defection. 

Alcibiades  had  been  for  some  time  suspected  by  the 
Spartans;  orders  had  even  been  sent  out  to  Astyochus  to 
put  him  to  death.  King  Agis  was  particularly  hostile  to 
him,  on  account,  it  is  alleged,  of  his  too  great  intimacy  with 
his  queen.  He  therefore  sought  refuge  with  Tissaphernes, 
over  whose  mind  he  acquired  great  influence,  which  he  im- 
mediately began  to  exercise  to  the  injury  of  his  former  friends. 
He  first  told  him  that  the  pay  which,  according  to  treaty,  he 
issued  to  their  seamen  was  too  great ;  for  the  Athenians,  who 
knew  so  much  of  such  matters,  did  not  give  more  than  the 
half  of  it,  and  that  out  of  prudence,  not  parsimony.  By  his 
advice  the  satrap  declared  that  till  he  learned  the  King's 
pleasure  he  must  reduce  the  pay  from  a  drachma  to  half  a 
drachma  a  day.  Against  this  Hermocrates  remonstrated 
warmly,  and  Tissaphernes  was  induced  to  make  a  small 
addition  to  it.  Alcibiades  further  impressed  on  the  satrap 
that  it  was  not  for  the  King's  interest  that  the  war  should 
end,  and  either  side  get  a  decided  superiority,  but  to  keep  up 
a  balance  of  power  between  them,  letting  the  Lacedaemonians 
be  superior  on  land,  the  Athenians  at  sea.     For  this  pur- 


264  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

pose  he  advised  him  not  to  bring  up  the  Phoenician  fleet, 
as  he  had  engaged,  but  to  go  on  promising,  and  keep  the 
Peloponnesians  from  righting,  and  supply  provisions  spar- 
ingly. Tissaphernes  acted  according  to  this  advice,  and  in 
consequence  of  it  nothing  of  importance  was  effected  by 
this  great  fleet. 

But  the  main  object  of  Alcibiades  was  to  procure  his 
restoration  to  his  country.  Secure  of  his  influence  with  the 
satrap,  he  sent  to  communicate  with  the  principal  persons 
in  the  army  at  Samos,  and  told  them  that  if  the  democracy 
at  home  was  replaced  by  an  oligarchy,  so  that  he  could 
return  with  safety,  he  would  assure  them  of  the  friendship 
of  Tissaphernes.  This  proposal  was  listened  to  readily  by 
the  trierarchs  and  other  respectable  persons,  for  they  were 
of  themselves  anxious  to  dissolve  the  democracy,  in  which 
the  Demos,  led  but  too  often  by  unprincipled  demagogues, 
exercised  all  power,  while  all  the  burdens  (which  were  now 
peculiarly  heavy)  fell  on  the  men  of  property.  They  there- 
fore sent  some  persons  to  speak  with  Alcibiades ;  and  on 
their  making  a  favorable  report,  measures  were  taken  to 
carry  the  plan  into  execution.  The  soldiers  and  sailors, 
when  the  matter  was  first  broached  to  them,  did  not  relish 
the  idea  of  parting  with  their  power;  but  the  information 
that  the  King  would  be  their  paymaster  soon  reconciled 
them  to  a  change.  Phrynichus,  however,  was  not  to  be 
gained  :  he  treated  the  arguments  in  favor  of  it  with  con- 
tempt :  Alcibiades,  he  said,  (as  was  true,)  cared  neither  for 
oligarchy  nor  democracy  ;  all  he  wanted  was  some  change 
which  would  enable  his  cronies  to  recall  him.  It  was  idle 
to  suppose  that  the  King  would  prefer  the  friendship  of  the 
Athenians  to  that  of  the  Peloponnesians ;  and  they  were 
much  mistaken  if  they  thought  that  an  oligarchy  would  have 
superior  attractions  for  the  allied  states,  whose  only  object 
was  to  be  independent,  and  who  knew  well  that  the  gentry, 
(xaXol  xuyudol,)  as  they  were  called,  were  to  the  full  as 
griping  and  oppressive  as  the  demos,  whose  power  was  a 
refuge  to  the  oppressed,  and  moderated  the  severity  of  the 


INTRIGUES    OF    ALCIBIADES.  265 

great.  He  therefore  declared  he  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  Alcibiades.  His  opposition,  however,  was  unheeded, 
and  Peisander  and  some  others  were  sent  to  Athens  to  try 
and  effect  the  proposed  changes. 

It  will  be  observed  that  for  many  years  there  had  been 
three  parties  in  Athens ;  the  aristocratic,  the  democratic, 
and  the  oligarchic.  The  first,  always  respectable  in  a  free 
state,  was  composed  of  the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Eu- 
patrides  or  nobles,  men  who  really  loved  their  country,  and 
served  it  faithfully  in  peace  and  war.  Its  policy  was  amity 
with  Lacedsemon  and  peace  in  general :  Cimon,  and  lately 
Nicias,  had  been  its  leaders,  but  it  was  now  unfortunately 
without  a  head  ;  the  generals  of  the  republic  were  almost 
always  of  it.*  The  democratic  party  had  been  led  by  Cleon, 
who  was  succeeded  by  Hyperbolos  ;  but  he  had  been  ostra- 
cised,t  and  no  one  had  yet  taken  his  place.  The  oligarchic 
party,  of  which  Alcibiades  had  been  a  distinguished  mem- 
ber, was  composed  of  men  of  talent  and  ambition,  who  cared 
little  for  the  real  interests  of  their  country,  satisfied  if,  in 
any  way,  they  could  be  at  the  head  of  it.  Many  members 
of  the  aristocracy  belonged  to  this  party;  and  some  demo- 
crats, such  as  Peisander,  also  came  over  to  it :  in  talent  and 
activity  it  had  now  a  decided  superiority. 

To  return  to  our  narrative  :  Phrynichus  knew  that  his 
situation  was  a  perilous  one ;  in  hopes,  therefore,'  of  de- 
stroying Alcibiades,  he  secretly  sent  information  to  Asty- 
ochus  of  what  he  was  about.     But  Astyochus  went  straight 

*  The  Athenians,  as  long  as  they  had  an  aristocracy,  always  chose 
their  chief  magistrates  and  generals  out  of  it.  The  same  was  the  case 
in  the  Italian  republics  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

t  In  the  struggle  between  Nicias  and  Alcibiades,  they  were  preparing 
to  try  their  strength  at  ostracism.  Hyperbolos  exerted  himself  to  have 
one  or  other  of  them  banished  ;  but  they  secretly  coalesced,  and  he  him- 
self was  ostracised.  The  people,  it  is  said,  (Plut.  Nicias,  11,)  were  so 
vexed  at  having  thus  degraded  the  ostracism,  that  they  abolished  it. 
The  real  cause  of  the  ostracism's  going  out  of  use  was  more  probably 
the  misfortunes  and  revolutions  of  Athens,  and  the  consequent  extinc- 
tion of  the  aristocracy. 

23  h  h 


266  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

to  Magnesia,  and  told  the  whole  (with  a  view,  it  was  said, 
to  his  own  private  interest)  to  Alcibiades  and  the  satrap. 
Alcibiades  forthwith  sent  to  inform  his  friends  at  Samos  of 
what  Phrynichus  had  done,  and  to  require  his  death.  Phryn- 
ichus,  reduced  to  desperation,  wrote  again  to  Astyochus, 
blaming  him  for  not  having  kept  the  secret,  and  offering  to 
enable  him  to  destroy  the  whole  Athenian  fleet  and  army  at 
Samos.  Astyochus  acted  as  before,  and  Phrynichus,  on 
learning  that  he  had  done  so,  called  the  army  together  before 
Alcibiades'  letter  arrived ;  and  telling  them  that  he  had  it 
on  good  authority  that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  enemy  to 
attack  them,  he  urged  them  to  set  about  raising  works  for 
the  defence  of  the  place.  Presently  came  a  letter  from 
Alcibiades,  but  no  credit  was  given  to  it,  as  his  only  object, 
it  was  thought,  was  to  injure  Phrynichus. 

Peisander  had  meantime  arrived  at  Athens.  At  first  he 
met  with  great  opposition  from  the  enemies  of  Alcibiades 
and  the  friends  of  the  democracy ;  but  when  he  asked  them 
separately  what  other  plan  they  had  for  saving  the  country, 
now  that  the  Peloponnesians  were  equal  to  them  at  sea,  had 
more  allies,  and  were  supplied  with  money  by  the  King  and 
Tissaphernes,  they  were  obliged  to  confess  that  they  had 
none.  He  added,  that  they  might  afterwards  change  any 
thing  they  did  not  like  in  the  new  constitution.  A  decree 
was  finally  passed  that  Peisander  and  ten  others  should  have 
full  powers  to  treat  with  Tissaphernes  and  Alcibiades,  and 
Diomedon  and  Leon  were  sent  out  to  replace  Phrynichus 
and  Scironides  in  their  command. 

Peisander  and  his  colleagues  proceeded  without  delay  to 
Asia.  Alcibiades,  conscious  that  his  influence  over  the 
satrap  was  not  so  great  as  he  had  represented  it,  —  for 
Tissaphernes  feared  the  Peloponnesians,  and  wished  the  two 
parties  to  wear  each  other  out,  —  resolved,  in  the  negotiation 
which  he  managed  in  his  presence,  to  throw,  if  possible,  the 
blame  of  breaking  it  off  on  the  Athenians,  and  thus  save  his 
own  credit.  He  therefore  first  demanded  that  all  Ionia  and 
the  adjacent  islands  should  be  ceded  to  the  King.     Contrary 


REVOLUTION    AT    ATHENS.  267 

to  his  expectation,  no  objection  was  made ;  and,  in  a  third 
conference,  he  required  that  the  King  should  be  allowed  to 
build  ships  of  war,  and  to  sail  with  as  many  as  he  pleased 
on  his  own  coast.*  On  hearing  this  demand,  the  Athenians, 
deeming  themselves  deceived  by  him,  broke  off  the  confer- 
ence in  anger  and  returned  to  Samos. 

Tissaphernes  forthwith  set  out  for  Caunos,  and  made  a 
new  treaty  with  the  Lacedaemonians,  by  which  he  engaged 
to  continue  the  pay  to  the  fleet ;  for  he  feared  that  if  he 
withheld  it,  they  might  be  beaten  by  the  Athenians,  or  their 
crews  might  desert,  and  in  either  case  the  Athenians  would 
get  the  upper  hand  without  his  aid  ;  or  they  might  begin 
to  plunder  the  country.  He  also  prepared  to  bring  up  the 
Phoenician  fleet  he  had  promised. 

Early  in  the  next  spring,  (Ol.  92,  2,)  a  Spartan  named 
Dercyllidas  came  with  a  small  force  by  land  from  Miletus 
to  the  Hellespont  :  Abydos  revolted  at  once,  and  two  days 
after,  its  example  was  followed  by  Lampsacus ;  but  Strom- 
bichides  came  from  Chios  with  twenty-four  ships,  landed, 
defeated  the  Lampsacenes,  and  took  and  plundered  the  town. 
Having  made  an  ineffectual  attempt  on  Abydos,  he  crossed 
over,  and  put  Sestos  in  a  state  of  defence.  The  Chians  were 
at  this  time  stronger  than  they  had  been  of  late.  In  an  at- 
tack on  the  Athenian  works  in  the  last  year,  Pedaritus  had 
fallen ;  but  Leon,  an  enterprising  officer,  who  commanded 
twelve  triremes  at  Miletus,  sailed  to  Chios ;  twenty-four 
Chian  ships  came  out  to  join  him,  and  their  combined  fleet 
engaged  the  Athenian  fleet  of  thirty-two  ships.  Night  sep- 
arated the  combatants,  and  Leon  entered  the  town  and 
took  the  command. 

The  Athenian  democracy  was  now  dissolved.  When  Pei- 
sander  and  his  colleagues  came  to  Samos,  they  found  their 
party  strong  in  the  army.  The  Samians  themselves  were 
now  desirous  of  oligarchy,  and  all  things  looked  so  favor- 
able that  they  thought  they  might  venture  to  effect  the  de- 

*  See  above,  p.  144,  note. 


268  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

sired  change  without  Alcibiades.  As  the  advantages  were 
to  be  all  their  own,  they  agreed  to  contribute  largely  from 
their  private  funds  for  all  the  necessary  expenses.  It  was 
decided  that  Peisander  and  five  of  his  colleagues  should  pro- 
ceed to  Athens,  taking  care  to  establish  oligarchies  in  such 
places  as  they  came  to :  the  other  five  were  sent  in  different 
quarters  with  the  same  design.  One  of  these,  Diotrephes, 
came  to  the  Isle  of  Thasos,  on  his  way  to  Thrace,  and  dis- 
solved the  democracy  there.  When  he  was  gone,  the  Tha- 
sians  rebuilt  their  town  wall ;  such  of  their  citizens  as  the 
Athenians  had  banished,  and  who  were  with  the  Lacedae- 
monians, returned  ;  ships  were  -procured,  and  the  isle  then 
revolted  !  The  same  occurred  in  several  other  places  ;  for 
the  oligarchic  party  every  where  naturally  looked  up  to 
Lacedaemon,  and  they  were  dubious  of  the  turn  things  might 
take  at  Athens. 

Peisander,  when  he  was  leaving  Athens  the  preceding 
year,  had  charged  the  oligarchic  clubs  or  societies,  (fv^w/uo- 
alai,)*  which  had  long  existed  in  the  city,  to  exert  them- 
selves to  the  utmost  for  the  overthrow  of  the  democracy. 
They  had  been  by  no  means  inactive,  and  had  even  assassi- 
nated a  leading  demagogue  named  Androcles,  and  some 
others,  from  whom  they  apprehended  opposition.  By  dint 
of  terror  —  for  no  one  knew  their  numbers,  or  who  were  of 
them  —  they  had  gained  absolute  authority  over  the  senate 
and  the  assembly ;  the  orators  were  all  of  their  party ;  every 
thing  that  was  to  be  spoken  was  previously  arranged  among 
them  ;  if  any  one  rose  to  oppose,  he  was  sure  before  long  to 
die  a  sudden  death. 

When  Peisander  arrived,  an  assembly  was  held,  and  ten 

*  The  members  of  these  clubs  were  bound  to  stand  by  and  support 
each  other  in  all  contests  for  office  in  the  state  and  in  trials  in  the  courts 
of  justice.  Like  all  societies  of  the  kind,  they  were,  as  we  see,  little 
scrupulous  about  the  means  they  employed.  There  were  similar  aris- 
tocratic clubs  at  Rome,  (Dion.  Hal.  iv.  30  ;  xi.  3.  Livy,  ix.  26,)  and  also 
democratic  ones,  (sodalitates,  Hist,  of  Rome,  pp.  402,  450.)  Carthage 
also  had  political  clubs. 


REVOLUTION    AT    ATHENS.  269 

persons  were  chosen  to  draw  up  a  constitution  against  a  cer- 
tain day.  On  that  day  the  assembly  was  held  at  the  temple 
of  Poseidon  at  Colonos,  about  ten  stadia  from  the  city.  The 
Ten  simply  proposed  that  any  Athenian  might  be  free  to 
bring  forward  what  measures  he  pleased.  This  being  agreed 
to,  and  fear  thus  removed,  Peisander  urged  that  the  ma- 
gistracies should  be  new-modelled,  and  pay  be  no  longer 
given  to  those  in  office ;  that  five  presidents  (n^oeSgoi,) 
should  be  appointed,  who  then  should  elect  one  hundred 
persons,  each  of  whom  should  choose  three,  and  that  these 
four  hundred  should  form  a  council,  with  unlimited  powers ; 
that  the  Four  Hundred,  and  they  alone,  might  convene  the 
assembly  whenever  they  pleased,  which  assembly  was  to  con- 
tain only  five  thousand  persons,  men  of  property  and  of 
bodily  vigor. 

Though  Peisander  was  thus  put  forward,  he  was  in  reality 
but  an  instrument.  The  person  who  had  planned  and  ar- 
ranged the  whole  was  Antiphon,  a  man  equal  to  any  of  his 
time  in  ability ;  *  but  his  eminent  qualities  had  made  him  an 
object  of  suspicion  to  the  ignorant  Demos  and  its  selfish 
leaders,  and  he  never  entered  on  public  affairs,  but  only  aided 
with  his  advice  those  engaged  in  public  or  private  suits. 
Another  active  agent  was  Theramenes,  son  of  Hagnon,  also 
a  man  of  ability  and  eloquence.t  Fear  and  hatred  of  Alci- 
biades  had  now  induced  Phrynichus  to  join  the  cause  of 
oligarchy.  These  and  other  able  men  succeeded  in  inducing 
the  Athenian  people  to  resign  the  liberty  which  they  had 
now  enjoyed  for  a  century,  more  than  half  of  which  time 
they  had  exercised  sovereignty  over  so  many  states.  In 
any  other  part  of  Greece  this  revolution  would  probably 
have  been  attended  with  massacre  and  bloodshed ;  it  is  to 
the  honor  of  Athens  that  the  blood  of  her  own  citizens 
never  ran  down  her  streets. 

The  next  step  was  to  dismiss  the  council  of  Five  Hundred. 

*  He  is  styled  by  Wachsmuth  the  Sieyes  of  Athens, 
t   Theramenes  was  nicknamed  Buskin,  (xudonvoc)  from  his  readiness 
to  change  sides,  as  the  dramatic  buskin  was  made  to  fit  either  foot. 

23* 


270  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

As  all  the  Athenians  were  now  daily  under  arms  on  account 
of  the  enemy  in  Deceleia,  on  a  certain  day  those  who  were 
not  of  the  party  were  allowed  to  go  about  their  affairs  as 
usual  :  the  rest  were  directed  to  remain  under  arms,  but  not 
to  stir  unless  they  saw  some  opposition  attempted.  There 
was  also  in  arms  a  body  of  hoplites  whom  Peisander  had 
brought  from  the  islands.  The  Four  Hundred  then,  each 
bearing  a  concealed  dagger,  and  followed  by  a  body  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  young  men,  whose  arms  were  always 
at  their  service,  entered  the  senate-house.*  They  offered 
the  Five  Hundred  the  salary  due  to  them,  and  desired  them 
to  depart  to  their  own  houses.  The  latter  quietly  took  the 
money,  and  obeyed.  The  Four  Hundred  then  elected  Pryta- 
nes,  (presidents,)  and  made  the  usual  prayers  and  sacrifices 
to  the  gods.  They  ruled  of  course  with  rigor,  putting  a  few 
persons  to  death,  banishing  some,  and  confining  others ; 
but,  on  account  of  Alcibiades,  they  would  not  recall  the 
exiles,  as  was  usual  in  such  cases. 

The  new  government,  naturally  anxious  for  amity  with 
Lacedsemon,  sent  deputies  to  Agis;  but  this  prince,  thinking 
that  perhaps  he  might  turn  the  state  of  affairs  to  greater  ad- 
vantage, and  by  a  sudden  assault  take  the  city,  summoned 
troops  from  Peloponnesus,  and  led  his  army  to  the  very  walls 
of  Athens.  No  tumult,  however,  broke  out,  and  the  horse 
and  light  troops  defeated  a  part  of  his  forces.  He  retired  to 
Deceleia,  and  finding  the  government  stronger  than  he  had 
expected,  agreed  to  an  embassy  being  sent  to  Sparta. 

A  more  important  object  was  to  gain  over  the  army  at 
Samos.  Ten  deputies  were  sent  thither,  instructed  to  say 
that  the  establishment  of  the  oligarchy  was  for  the  general 
interest,  that  the  direction  of  affairs  would  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  Five  Thousand,  and  not  merely  those  of  the  Four  Hun- 
dred ;  and  to  remind  them  that,  owing  to  war,  and  other  cir- 
cumstances, it  had  never  occurred  that  five  thousand  citizens 
had  assembled  to  deliberate,  be  the  affair  of  ever  such  im- 
portance. 

*  Just  as  Cromwell  dissolved  the  Long  Parliament. 


REVOLUTION    AT    ATHENS.  271 

But  affairs  had  taken,  an  adverse  turn  in  Samos.  The 
democratic  Samians,  whom  Peisander  had  gained  to  the  cause 
of  oligarchy,  were  three  hundred  in  number,  and  bound  to- 
gether by  oath.  They  killed  —  how  or  why  we  are  not  told  — 
some  Athenians,  among  whom  was  the  general  Charminus 
and  the  ex-demagogue  Hyperbolus,  and  were  preparing  to 
attack  the  popular  party,  who,  getting  information,  applied 
for  protection  to  Leon  and  Diomedon,  and  also  to  Thrasy- 
bulus,  a  trierarch,  and  Thrasyllus,  a  hoplite,  —  all  adverse 
to  oligarchy.  These  last  addressed  themselves  to  the  sol- 
diers, particularly  the  Paralians,  or  crew  of  the  Paralian  tri- 
reme, who  were  thorough  foes  to  oligarchy ;  and  when  the 
three  hundred  assailed  the  people,  the  Athenians  aided,  and 
they  were  defeated  with  the  loss  of  thirty  of  their  number  : 
three  were  banished,  and  the  rest  quietly  submitted  to  de- 
mocracy. Ignorant  of  the  change  which  had  taken  place 
at  Athens,  the  army  at  Samos  sent  home  the  Paralian,  and 
one  Chaereas  on  board  of  it,  with  word  of  what  had  occurred. 
The  Four  Hundred  cast  two  or  three  of  the  Paralians  into 
prison,  and  moving  the  rest  into  another  ship,  sent  them  to 
keep  guard  at  EubcBa.  But  Chaereas,  making  his  escape, 
came  to  Samos,  and  gave  the  army  a  false  account  of  the 
atrocities  of  the  Four  Hundred,  and  of  their  intention  of 
seizing  and  putting  to  death  the  relatives  of  such  of  the  sol- 
diers as  did  not  declare  for  them.  The  soldiers,  moved  by 
these  calumnies,  were  going  in  their  rage  to  fall  at  once  on  the 
friends  of  oligarchy ;  but  the  moderate  party  restrained  them, 
and  Thasybulus  and  Thrasyllus  made  the  whole  army  take 
a  solemn  oath,  in  which  the  Samians  also  joined,  to  sup- 
port the  democracy,  to  continue  the  war  against  the  Pelo- 
ponnesians,  and  to  make  no  terms  with  the  Four  Hundred. 
An  assembly  was  held,  the  generals  and  trierarchs  who 
were  suspected  were  deposed,  and  new  ones  appointed, 
among  whom  Thrasybulus  and  Thrasyllus  held  prominent 
places. 

Having  thus,  as  it  were,  cast  off  allegiance,  the  soldiers 
began  to  consider  their  situation.     They  reflected  that  they 


272  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

were  the  strength  of  the  state ;  that  as  they  had  the  fleet, 
they  could  oblige  the  allies  to  pay  the  subsidies  to  them;  that, 
if  so  minded,  they  could  even  blockade  the  Piraeeus ;  that 
they  could  have  Samos  for  a  home ;  that  Alcibiades,  if  as- 
sured of  safety  and  his  recall,  would  gladly  procure  them 
the  alliance  of  the  King ;  that,  at  the  worst,  with  such  a 
fleet  they  would  soon  find  cities  and  lands  somewhere  or 
another. 

The  army  next  voted  the  recall  of  Alcibiades,  and  Thras- 
ybulus  himself  went  and  brought  him  to  Samos.  An  as- 
sembly was  convened,  and  Alcibiades  vaunted  to  it  his  in- 
fluence with  the  satrap,  who,  he  said,  had  declared  to  him 
that  he  would  aid  the  Athenians  though  he  were  to  sell  his 
bed  for  the  purpose,  and  would  make  the  Phoenician  fleet 
join  them,  provided  he  could  place  reliance  on  them,  which 
he  could  only  do  through  Alcibiades.  The  multitude,  full 
of  joy  and  hope,  appointed  him  general  on  the  spot,  and  in- 
sisted on  sailing  away  at  once  to  the  Pirseeus  and  taking  ven- 
geance on  the  Four  Hundred  ;  but  Alcibiades  restrained 
them  from  this  rash  project.  He  then  returned  to  Tissapher- 
nes,  to  show  him  the  power  he  now  possessed,  for  his  object 
was  to  awe  the  satrap  with  the  Athenians,  and  the  Athenians 
with  the  satrap,  for  his  own  advantage. 

The  Peloponnesians,  owing  probably  to  want  of  vigor  in 
Astyochus,  disunion  among  themselves,  and  the  conduct  of 
the  satrap,  had  not  derived  the  slightest  advantage  from  the 
dissensions  of  the  Athenians.  A  new  admiral,  Mindarus, 
now  came  out  to  replace  Astyochus. 

The  embassy  from  the  Four  Hundred  to  Sparta  had  been 
sent  by  sea  in  a  trireme  manned  by  the  Paralians ;  but  in- 
stead of  proceeding  to  Laconia,  they  carried  the  ship  to 
Argos,  and  delivered  the  deputies  prisoners  to  the  Argives. 
As  there  was  nothing  the  Argives  more  dreaded  than  the 
overthrow  of  the  democracy  at  Athens,  they  readily  joined 
the  party  which  supported  it,  and  they  sent  deputies  to  Sa- 
mos with  the  Paralians  who  were  sailing  thither.  They  ar- 
rived about  the  same  time  with  the  deputation  from  the  Four 


REVOLUTION    AT    ATHENS.  273 

Hundred,  which  had  stopped  at  Delos  :  Alcibiades  was  also 
returned.  An  assembly  was  held  ;  the  soldiers  were  with 
difficulty  induced  to  listen  to  a  defence  of  the  Four  Hundred 
against  the  false  charges  of  Chaereas  ;  they  were  eager  to  sail 
at  once  for  the  Piraeus,  an  act  which  would  have  made  the 
Peloponnesians  absolute  masters  of  Ionia  and  the  Hellespont. 
But  Alcibiades,  who  alone  had  the  power,  again  restrained 
them,  thus  rendering  a  most  essential  service  to  his  coun- 
try. To  the  deputies  he  replied  that  he  had  no  objection 
to  the  assembly  of  Five  Thousand,  but  that  the  council  of 
Four  Hundred  must  be  dissolved,  and  the  Five  Hundred 
restored.  He  recommended  economy  at  home,  that  the 
soldiers  might  have  sufficient  supplies ;  and  he  advised  to 
resist  the  common  enemy  with  vigor.  He  thanked  the 
Argives,  and  prayed  them  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to 
aid  if  required. 

The  deputies  returned  to  Athens,  and-  Alcibiades  set  sail 
with  thirteen  ships  for  Aspendos,  at  which  place  the  Phoe- 
nician fleet  of  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  ships  was  lying, 
and  whither  Tissaphernes  had  gone,  accompanied  by  some 
of  the  Spartans.  He  promised  the  troops  that  by  his  influ- 
ence with  the  satrap  he  would  manage  so  that  if  this  fleet  did 
not  join  them,  it  should  not  join  the  Peloponnesians ;  for  he 
knew  right  well  that  it  was  not  the  intention  of  Tissaphernes 
to  send  it  to  the  aid  of  either. 

When  the  deputies  arrived  at  Athens,  they  found  the 
leaders  of  their  party  no  longer  at  unity  among  themselves. 
Some  of  them,  such  as  Theramenes  and  Aristocrates,  whose 
only  object  had  been  private  power,  now  began  to  think  a 
democracy  more  for  their  advantage ;  *  while  Antiphon, 
Phrynichus,  Peisander,  and  others,  remained  firm  to  their 
principles.  These  last,  seeing  no  time  was  to  be  lost,  sent 
Antiphon,  Phrynichus,  and  ten  others,  to  Sparta,  to  try  to 
effect  an  alliance ;  and  they  urged  on  the  works  which  they 
had  already  commenced  at  the  Eetioneia,  as  one  of  the  points 

*  Lysias  against  Eratosthenes,  126, 10. 

I  I 


274  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

at  the  mouth  of  the  port  of  Piraeeus  was  named,  which  com- 
manded the  entrance.  This  place  they  made  the  general 
magazine  of  corn,  whither  all  that  was  in  the  city  was  trans- 
ported, and  where  all  that  arrived  was  landed. 

Theramenes  and  his  party  maintained  that  this  fort  was 
designed,  not  against  the  army  at  Samos,  but  for  the  recep- 
tion of  the  enemy ;  and  asserted  that  a  fleet  of  forty-two 
ships  which  was  preparing  to  sail  from  Laconia  to  Eubcea, 
at  the  invitation  of  the  people  of  that  island,  was  in  reality 
destined  for  the  Eetioneia.  It  is  the  opinion  of  Thucydides 
that  they  were  not  far  wrong,  for  that  such  was  the  horror 
of  democracy  felt  by  Peisander  and  his  friends,  that  they 
would  rather  see  the  city,  without  walls  or  ships,  at  the 
mercy  of  the  enemy,  than  the  supreme  power  again  in  the 
hands  of  the  people. 

Matters  were  now  drawing  to  a  crisis  between  the  two 
parties.  One  of  the  city-guard  gave  Phrynichus  a  mortal 
wound  as  he  was  coming  from  the  senate-house,  at  the  very 
time  that  the  market  was  full  of  people.  The  murderer 
escaped  ;  an  Argive,  his  accomplice,  was  taken,  and  put  to  the 
torture,  but  no  definite  information  could  be  drawn  from  him. 
Theramenes  and  his  friends  grew  bolder,  and  as  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  fleet,  after  having  ravaged  ^Egina,  was  lying  at  Epi- 
daurus,  he  declared  that  its  object  was  apparent,  and  that  it 
was  now  full  time  to  act.  Immediately  the  hoplites  who  were 
fortifying  the  Eetioneia,  one  of  whose  officers  Aristocrates 
was,  seized  and  confined  Alexicles  their  commander.  The 
Four  Hundred,  when  they  heard  of  it,  menaced  Theramenes 
and  his  friends.  Theramenes  defended  himself,  and  offered 
to  go  and  release  Alexicles ;  and  he  and  one  of  his  party  set 
out  for  the  Piraeeus,  while  Aristarchus  of  the  other  party,  and 
the  younger  Horsemen,  went  the  same  way.  All  was  con- 
fusion ;  those  in  the  city  thought  the  Piraeeus  was  taken,  and 
Alexicles  slain  ;  those  at  the  Piraeeus,  that  the  whole  force 
of  the  city  was  coming  against  them. 

Theramenes,  who  bore  the  office  of  general,  affected  great 
indignation  when  he  came  to  the  Piraeeus :  the  hoplites,  how- 


REVOLUTION    AT    ATHENS.  275 

ever,  still  continued  demolishing  the  fort.  They  asked  him  if 
he  thought  it  was  meant  for  any  good  purpose,  and  if  it  were 
not  better  to  destroy  it.  He  replied,  that  if  they  were  pleased, 
he  was  pleased ;  and  they  went  on  with  their  work,  in  which 
several  others  now  joined.  The  cry  was,  "  Let  him  who  will 
have  the  Five  Thousand,  and  not  the  Four  Hundred,  to  rule, 
come  to  the  work  ! "  They  cautiously  said  the  Five  Thousand, 
and  not  the  Demos,  as  this  might  now  be  construed  into 
treason.  Next  day,  when  the  fort  was  demolished,  they  re- 
leased Alexicles,  and  going  to  the  theatre  of  Bacchus  at 
Munychia,  held  an  assembly  under  arms.  They  thence 
marched  to  the  city  and  posted  themselves  at  the  Anaceion. 
Here  they  were  waited  on  by  deputies  from  the  Four  Hundred, 
who  accosted  them  individually,  and  besought  them  not  to 
endanger  the  state  by  civil  disunion,  assuring  them  that  the 
Five  Thousand  should  be  declared,  who  would  then  have 
the  power  of  electing  the  Four  Hundred  from  among  them- 
selves in  any  manner  they  pleased.  This  pacified  them 
greatly,  and  a  day  was  appointed  for  an  assembly  at  the 
Dionysion  to  arrange  every  thing. 

The  appointed  day  was  arrived,  the  people  were  repair- 
ing to  the  Dionysion,  when  word  came  that  the  enemy  was 
sailing  along  Salamis.  All  hurried  down  to  the  Piraeeus  :  some 
launched  triremes,  others  got  on  board,  others  manned  the 
walls  and  the  mouth  of  the  harbor.  The  Peloponnesians 
however  sailed  on,  doubled  Sunion,  and  steered  for  Oropus, 
where  they  landed.  Fearing  for  Euboea,  which  was  now 
every  thing  to  them,  the  Athenians  manned  what  triremes 
they  had  and  sent  them  off.  These,  when  joined  by  those 
stationed  at  Euboea,  amounted  to  thirty-six,  while  the 
hostile  fleet  counted  forty-two.  The  Athenians  took  their 
station  at  Eretria,  sixty  stadia  from  Oropus.  The  Spartan 
commander,  when  his  crew  had  dined,  crossed  the  channel 
at  a  given  signal  from  his  friends  in  Eretria.  The  Athenians 
were  dispersed  in  search  of  provisions,  for  the  Eretrians  had 
taken  care  there  should  be  none  in  the  market ;  they  got  on 
board,  however,  as  fast  as  they  could,  and  engaged  the  enemy; 


276 


HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 


but  they  were  speedily  routed  and  driven  ashore,  with  the 
loss  of  twenty-two  ships.  Soon  afterwards  the  whole  island, 
except  Oreiis,  revolted. 

Even  the  intelligence  of  the  calamity  in  Sicily  had  not 
caused  such  general  dismay  in  Athens  as  this  defeat,  and 
had  the  Peloponnesians  sailed  at  once  for  the  Piraeeus,  they 
might  have  taken  it ;  the  fleet  must  then  have  returned  from 
Samos,  and  the  whole  Athenian  empire  have  been  lost.  But 
on  this,  as  on  other  occasions,  observes  Thucydides,  the 
slow  and  timid  character  of  the  Spartan  policy  was  of  ad- 
vantage to  the  Athenians.  The  case  had  been  far  different 
when  they  had  to  do  with  a  people  like  themselves  in  the 
Syracusans. 

Twenty  triremes,  however,  was  manned ;  an  assembly 
was  summoned  to  the  Pnyx,  the  old  democratic  place  of 
assemblage ;  the  Four  Hundred  were  deposed,  having  held 
their  office  only  four  months ;  power  was  transferred  to  the 
Five  Thousand,  of  whom  every  one  who  bore  arms  (onla) 
might  be  a  member ;  no  person  in  office  was  to  have  any  pay 
or  salary.*  Several  other  assemblies  were  held,  and  various 
measures  passed,  and  Alcibiades  and  other  exiles  were  re- 
called. Thucydides  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  mixture 
of  oligarchy  and  democracy  now  established  was  the  best 
condition  of  the  Athenian  constitution  that  he  had  ever  seen : 
it  had  soon  however  —  probably  the  very  next  year  —  to  give 
way  to  the  old  ochlocracy. 

Peisander,  Alexicles,  and  the  more  violent  oligarchs,  fled 
to  Deceleia.  Aristarchus  took  advantage  of  his  office  of  gen- 
eral to  deceive  the  garrison  of  CEnoe,  a  fortress  on  the  bor- 
ders of  Boeotia,  and  make  them  surrender  it  to  the  Boeotians. 
Antiphon  and  Archeptolemus  were  prosecuted  before  the  peo- 
ple by  their  late  colleague  Theramenes,  and  put  to  death.! 

*  As  the  pay  of  the  Ecclesiasts  and  Heliasts  was  evidently  included, 
this  was  intended  to  obviate  the  pernicious  measures  of  Pericles.  See 
above,  p.  165. 

t  Lysias  against  Eratosthenes,  12C,  15. 


AFFAIRS    ON    THE    COAST    OF    ASIA.  277 


CHAPTER   X.* 

AFFAIRS  ON  THE  COAST  OF  ASIA. RETURN  OF  ALCIBIADES. 

LYSANDER. CALLICRATIDAS.  BATTLE  OF    ARGINUSJ3. 

CONDEMNATION  OF  THE  GENERALS.  BATTLE    OF    .EGOSPO- 

TAMI.  SURRENDER  OF  ATHENS. DEATH    OF  ALCIBIADES. 

The  Peloponnesians  on  the  coast  of  Asia  were  now  com- 
pletely wearied  out  with  the  duplicity  of  Tissaphernes,  and 
Mindarus  resolved  to  accept  the  invitation  of  Pharnabazus, 
and  sail  for  the  Hellespont :  he  had  already  sent  sixteen  of 
his  ships  thither,  and  he  now  secretly  put  to  sea  with  seventy- 
three,  and  got  as  far  as  Chios.  Thrasyllus,  who  commanded 
at  Samos,  when  he  heard  of  his  departure,  hastened  after  him 
with  fifty-five  ships.  He  took  his  station  at  Lesbos,  where 
the  town  of  Eressos  had  revolted  :  he  was  here  joined  by 
Thrasybulus.  The  whole  Athenian  force  was  now  sixty-seven 
triremes,  and  the  siege  of  Eressos  was  pressed  with  vigor. 
Mindarus,  anxious  to  avoid  the  Athenian  fleet,  hastily  left 
Chios ;  and  keeping  close  to  the  Asiatic  coast,  and  sailing 
by  night  when  opposite  Lesbos,  he  reached  toward  midnight 
the  points  of  Rhceteion  and  Sigeion,  (Sigeum,)  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Hellespont.  Fire  signals  gave  notice  to  the  Athenian 
fleet  of  eighteen  ships,  at  Sestos,  of  the  arrival  of  an  enemy. 
They  set  sail  immediately  along  the  Chersonese  to  get  into 
the  open  sea ;  they  eluded  the  ships  lying  at  Abydos,  but  in 
the  morning  they  were  chased  by  those  of  Mindarus,  and  four 
of  them  taken.  The  ships  at  Abydos  joined  Mindarus,  and 
his  whole  fleet  now  counted  eighty-six  ships. 

When  the  Athenians  heard  that  Mindarus  had  escaped 
them,  they  gave  over  the  siege  of  Eressos,  and  sailed  for  the 
Hellespont.  With  a  fleet  of  seventy-eight  ships  they  moved 
in  a  single  line  along  the  Chersonese   toward  Sestos;  the 

*  Thuc.  viii.  99  to  the  end.     Xenophon,  Hellen.  i.  ii.  1 — 3.     Diodor 
xiii.  38—42,  45—53,  64—79,  97—107.     Plut.,  Alcibiades  and  Lysander 
24 


278  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Peloponnesians  drew  up  their  eighty-six  ships  on  the  oppo- 
site coast  from  Abydos  to  Dardanos,  the  Syracusans  on  the 
right,  Mindarus  and  the  best-sailing  ships  on  the  left.  They 
then  tried  with  their  left  to  get  beyond  the  Athenian  right, 
and  if  possible  to  drive  their  centre  ashore ;  but  the  Athe- 
nians frustrated  them  by  superior  rowing.  The  Athenian 
left  had  now  gone  beyond  the  point  named  Cynossema, 
(xwug  oi]ua^j  or  the  Dog's  Monument,  and  was  not  within  view 
of  the  centre,  which  was  weak  and  scattered.  The  Pelopon- 
nesians therefore  easily  succeeded  in  driving  it  ashore  ;  for 
the  left  was  out  of  sight,  and  moreover  engaged  with  the 
Syracusans,  and  the  right  was  now  held  in  check  by  Min- 
darus. At  length  the  right  charged,  put  the  Peloponne- 
sians to  flight,  and  the  Syracusans  then  also  fled.  Owing 
to  the  narrowness  of  the  strait  the  Athenians  took  but  twenty- 
one  ships,  and  they  had  lost  fifteen  of  their  own.  Their  vic- 
tory was,  however,  decisive,  and  it  restored  their  confidence 
in  themselves,  and  made  them  cease  to  regard  the  Dorians 
as  worthy  rivals  on  the  sea.  A  trireme  was  sent  home  with 
the  joyful  news,  which  greatly  raised  the  spirits  of  the  people, 
depressed  by  the  loss  of  Eubcea. 

Alcibiades  returned  to  Samos,  and  assured  the  Athenians 
that  Tissaphernes  was  more  their  friend  than  ever.  But 
this  feeble  and  treacherous  satrap,  who  was  now  grown  un- 
easy at  the  departure  of  Mindarus,  hastened  to  the  Helles- 
pont to  hold  a  conference  with  him.  Alcibiades  also  sailed 
thither  with  eighteen  triremes.* 

One  day  at  dawn,  a  squadron  of  fourteen  ships  coming 
from  Rhodes  was  discerned  by  the  Athenian  sentinel  en- 
tering the  Hellespont.  Twenty  triremes  instantly  came  out 
of  Sestos  to  engage  it.  The  Peloponnesians  fled  to  land 
at  the  Rhceteion,  whither  the  Athenians  pursued  them  ;  but 

*  The  history  of  Thucydides  ends  at  this  point,  and  we  are  left  to  the 
far  inferior  guidance  of  Xenophon.  This  writer,  though  an  Athenian, 
was  entirely  devoted  to  the  Lacedaemonians.  He  tells  the  truth,  we 
believe,  but  not  always  the  whole  truth.  Our  other  guide,  Diodorus, 
drew  his  materials  from  Xenophon  and  Theopompus. 


AFFAIRS    ON    THE    COAST    OF    ASIA.  279 

having  assailed  them  to  no  purpose,  they  retired  and  joined 
the  rest  of  their  fleet.  Mindarus,  who  was  at  Ilion  sacrificing 
to  Athena,  seeing  what  had  occurred,  came  down  to  the  sea 
and  got  out  his  fleet  to  go  and  bring  them  off.  The  Athe- 
nian fleet  also  came  out ;  and  they  fought  off  Abydos  from 
morn  till  eve  without  any  advantage  on  either  side.  At  the 
close  of  the  day  Alcibiades  arrived  ;  thePeloponnesians  then 
fled  to  Abydos.  Pharnabazus  came  down  and  even  rode  into 
the  sea  to  their  aid,  and  the  Athenians  retired,  carrying  with 
them  thirty  empty  ships  which  they  had  taken.  Leaving 
then  forty  ships  at  Sestos,  the  commanders  went  to  collect 
money  on  the  coast  of  Thrace,  and  Thrasyllus  was  sent  home 
to  ask  the  people  for  men  and  ships. 

When  Tissaphernes  came  shortly  after  to  the  Hellespont, 
Alcibiades  waited  on  him  with  a  present,  according  to  East- 
ern usage  ;  but  the  faithless  satrap  seized  and  sent  him  pris- 
oner to  Sardes,  alleging  that  the  King  had  ordered  him  to 
make  war  on  the  Athenians.  He  escaped,  however,  in  about 
a  month  to  Clazomenae,  whence  he  sailed  with  six  ships, 
and  joined  the  fleet  which  had  retired  from  Sestos  to  Car- 
dia  on  account  of  the  superior  force  of  Mindarus.  Hearing 
that  Mindarus  had  moved  to  Cyzicus,  he  went  over  land  to 
Sestos,  directing  the  fleet  to  sail  thither.  At  Sestos  they 
were  joined  by  forty  triremes  which  had  been  collecting 
money,  and  the  whole  fleet  now  amounted  to  eighty-six 
ships.  At  Proconnesus  they  heard  that  Pharnabazus  and 
his  troops  were  with  Mindarus  at  Cyzicus.  Alcibiades,  hav- 
ing denounced  capital  punishment,  to  anyone  who  should 
attempt  to  pass  over  with  intelligence  to  the  enemy,  sum- 
moned an  assembly,  and  told  the  men  to  be  prepared  for 
every  kind  of  combat,  as  without  a  victory  they  could  not 
hold  out  against  those  who  were  subsidised  by  the  King. 
They  then  made  for  Cyzicus.  It  was  raining  hard,  but  it 
cleared  up  as  they  were  coming  near  it,  and  they  found 
Mindarus'  sixty  triremes  out  exercising  at  a  distance  from 
the  port.  The  Peloponnesians,  when  they  saw  them,  made 
for   the   land,    and  there  defended  themselves.     Alcibiades 


280  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

moved  off  with  twenty  ships,  and  effected  a  landing.  Min- 
darus,  seeing  this,  landed  also  with  some  troops,  and  ad- 
vanced against  him.  The  Spartan  fell ;  his  men  fled  ;  and 
the  Athenians  dragged  in  triumph  to  Proconnesus  all  the 
ships  but  those  of  the  Syracusans,  which  were  burnt  by 
their  crews.  Cyzicus  surrendered  the  next  day  ;  Alcibiades, 
having  levied  contributions  there,  sailed,  and  did  the  same 
at  Perinthus  and  Selymbria,  on  the  Thracian  side ;  thence 
proceeding  to  Chrysopolis,  on  the  Bosporus,  he  fortified  it, 
and  established  a  custom-house  to  levy  a  toll  of  a  tenth  on 
all  vessels  coming  from  the  Euxine.     (Ol.  92,  3.) 

The  generous  Pharnabazus  endeavored  to  console  his 
allies ;  he  gave  the  men  clothes  and  two  months'  provisions; 
he  also  supplied  them  with  money  and  with  timber  to  build 
a  new  fleet  at  Antandros.  While  they  were  thus  engaged, 
the  Syracusans  found  time  to  aid  the  Antandrians  to  raise 
their  walls,  for  which  the  freedom  of  the  city  was  granted 
to  all  Syracusans.  But  meantime  the  capricious  Demos  at 
home  had  passed  a  decree  of  exile  on  the  generals.  Her- 
mocrates  called  the  soldiers  together,  told  them  what  had 
been  done,  and  desired  them  to  appoint  temporary  command- 
ers in  place  of  himself  and  colleagues.  The  assembly  were 
loud  in  their  indignation,  and  would  not  permit  them  to  re- 
sign. They  therefore  held  the  command  till  their  successors 
should  come  out ;  and  most  of  the  captains  bound  themselves 
by  oath  to  obtain  their  recall  on  their  return  to  Syracuse. 
Hermocrates  retired  to  Pharnabazus,  who  voluntarily  gave 
him  money,  with  which  he  procured  ships  and  men  to  effect 
his  return  to  his  country.* 

The  Lacedaemonians,  when  they  heard  of  the  defeat  and 
death  of  Mindarus,  sent  without  delay  proposals  of  peace 
to  Athens  ;  but  the  people,  who  had  now  regained  their 
full  sovereignty,  rejected  them  at  the  instance  of  one  Cleo- 
ph  n,  a  man  of  low  birth,  who  was  now  the  leading  dema- 

*  Hermocrates  lost  his  life  two  years  afterwards,  (Ol.  93,  1,)  in  a 
nocturnal  attempt  on  the  city  of  Syracuse.  (Diod.  xiii.  75.)  His  son 
Dionysius  became  the  celebrated  tyrant  of  that  city.  (Ol.  93,  3.) 


AFFAIRS    ON    THE    COAST    OF    ASIA.  231 

gogue.*  While  Thrasyllus  was  at  Athens,  King  Agis  led 
his  troops,  as  before,  up  to  the  walls  of  the  city  ;  but  he 
retired  when  he  saw  the  Athenians  come  out  and  place 
themselves  in  battle  array  at  the  Lyceion,  (Lyceum.)  The 
people  readily  granted  to  Thrasyllus  one  thousand  hoplites, 
one  hundred  horse,  and  fifty  triremes.  Agis,  seeing  that 
abundance  of  corn  came  to  Athens  by  sea  from  the  Euxine, 
and  deeming  it  vain  to  hope  to  effect  any  thing  if  that  were 
not  prevented,  resolved  to  send  as  many  ships  as  he  could 
to  Byzantion,  under  a  Spartan  named  Clearchus,  who  had 
proxeny  there.  He  could  collect  but  fifteen  ;  and  with  the 
loss  of  three  of  them,  Clearchus  reached  that  town,  and  be- 
came its  harmost.i 

Early  in  the  next  year,  (Ol.  92,  4,)  Thrasyllus  sailed  for 
Samos.  He  had  armed  five  thousand  of  his  sailors  as  pel- 
tasts,  and  was  thus  enabled  to  make  descents  on  various 
parts  of  the  coast  of  Asia.  Being  defeated  in  an  attempt  on 
Ephesus,  he  sailed  for  the  Hellespont,  and  joined  the  other 
fleet  at  Sestos,  whence  they  crossed  over  to  Lampsacus. 
Here,  as  Alcibiades  was  preparing  to  form  the  two  bodies 
of  troops  into  one,  the  victors  at  Cyzicus  refused  to  unite 
with  the  vanquished  at  Ephesus ;  but  the  latter  afterwards 
behaved  so  well  against  Pharnabazus  when  he  came  to  the 
relief  of  Abydos,  that  all  opposition  ceased.  During  the  win- 
ter several  expeditions  were  made  into  the  King's  country. 

In  the  spring,  (01.  93,  1,)  the  whole  fleet  made  sail  for 
the  Bosporus,  to  attempt  the  reduction  of  Chalcedon  and 
Byzantion,  and  thus  get  the  complete  command  of  the 
navigation  of  the  strait.  A  landing  was  effected  near  Chal- 
cedon, and  as  the  inhabitants  had  committed  most  of  their 
property  to  the  care  of  the  Bithynians,  Alcibiades,  taking 
with  him  a  part  of  the  forces,  went  against  that  people,  and 
made  them  give  it  up.  On  his  return,  Chalcedon  was  shut 
in  by  a  wall  of  timber  running  from  sea  to  sea.     Hippoc- 

*  Diodor.  xiii.  52,  53. 

t  Harmost,  {uQ^oor\,q,)  or  regulator,  was  the  title  of  the  Spartan  mil- 
itary commandants  in  the  allied  towns. 

24*  j  j 


232 


HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 


rates,  the  Lacedaemonian  harmost,  led  out  his  troops,  and 
engaged  Thrasyllus  between  the  wall  and  the  town,  while 
Pharnabazus  appeared  with  his  cavalry  without  the  wall. 
Alcibiades,  having  forced  the  satrap  to  retire,  came  to  the 
aid  of  Thrasyllus  ;  and  Hippocrates  was  slain,  and  his  men 
driven  into  the  town.  Alcibiades  then  went  to  the  Cher- 
sonese to  collect  money ;  and  his  colleagues,  during  his  ab- 
sence, came  to  an  arrangement  with  Pharnabazus,  who 
agreed  to  give  twenty  talents  to  the  Athenians,  and  to  con- 
vey their  ambassadors  to  Susa,  till  whose  return  they  were 
to  exercise  no  hostility  against  the  Chalcedonians,  who 
were  meantime  to  pay  them  tribute  as  before,  and  to  liqui- 
date the  arrears.  Alcibiades,  who  had  reduced  Selymbria, 
and  was  now  pressing  Byzantion,  passed  over  to  Chrysop- 
olis  at  the  desire  of  the  satrap,  and  swore  to  this  treaty : 
he  then  returned  to  the  siege  of  Byzantion. 

Clearchus,  leaving  the  defence  of  the  town  to  the  com- 
manders of  the  Boeotian  and  Megarian  troops  which  were 
there,  crossed  over  to  Pharnabazus,  in  order  to  get  money 
from  him.  He  then  proposed  to  collect  all  the  ships  he 
could,  and  to  endeavor  to  make  such  a  diversion  as  would 
call  the  Athenians  from  before  Byzantion.  But  he  knew 
not  that  the  city  was  already  betrayed;  for  scarcely  was  he 
gone,  when  the  Thracian  gate  was  opened  one  night,  and 
Alcibiades  and  his  troops  admitted.  After  a  fruitless  at- 
tempt at  resistance,  the  garrison  had  been  forced  to  lay 
down  their  arms.* 

*  Instances  of  generosity,  and  even  of  justice,  are  so  rare  in  Grecian 
history,  that  we  cannot  omit  the  following,  which  is  creditable  to  the 
Spartan  character.  Anaxileus,  one  of  those  who  betrayed  Byzantion  to 
the  Athenians,  was  afterwards  tried  for  it  at  Lacedaemcm.  He  pleaded 
that  he  had  saved,  and  not  betrayed,  the  city  ;  for  being  a  Byzantine, 
and  seeing  the  women  and  children  starving,  whilst  Clearchus  reserved 
all  the  provisions  for  his  soldiers,  he  had  let  the  enemies  in  out  of  pity, 
and  not  for  money  or  through  emnity  to  the  Lacedaemonians.  His  de- 
fence was  considered  valid,  and  he  was  acquitted.  Such  would  surely 
not  have  been  the  case  at  Athens  :  yet  the  Athenians  were,  as  their 
treatment  of  their  slaves  evinces,  naturally  the  milder  people  of  the  two : 


RETURN    OF    ALCIBIADES.  283 

Alcibiades,  having  destroyed  the  Peloponnesian  fleet  and 
restored  the  dominion  of  his  country,  thought  he  might  now 
venture  to  return  to  Athens,  which  he  had  not  seen  for  six 
years.  He  proceeded  to  Samos,  and  thence  with  twenty 
ships  to  the  coast  of  Caria,  where  he  collected  one  hundred 
talents.  Thrasybulus  went  at  the  same  time  with  thirty 
ships  to  Thrace,  where  he  reduced  Thasos  and  all  the  other 
places  that  had  revolted.  Thrasyllus  sailed  with  the  rest 
of  the  fleet  to  Athens,  where  Alcibiades,  Thrasybulus,  and 
Conon  had  been  chosen  generals  for  the  year.     (Ol.  93,  2.) 

On  his  return  to  Samos,  Alcibiades  sailed  to  Paros,  and 
thence  to  the  Laconian  port  of  Gythion,  to  look  after  the 
thirty  triremes  the  Lacedaemonians  were  said  to  be  getting 
ready  there.  His  chief  reason  for  delay  appears  to  have 
been  his  desire  to  learn  how  matters  stood  at  home;  when, 
therefore,  he  heard  that  he  ha4  been  chosen  general,  and 
his  friends  sent  to  encourage  him,  he  sailed  at  once  for  the 
Pirseeus.  He  happened  to  enter  it  on  the  day  of  the  Plyn- 
teria,  a  festival  during  which  it  was  the  usage  to  cover  the 
statute  of  the  patron  goddess  of  the  city ;  and  many  deemed 
this  an  ill  omen  for  himself  and  the  state.  All  the  people 
had  crowded  down  to  the  port  to  see  Alcibiades.  Opinions 
were  divided  respecting  him.  Some  said  that  he  had  always 
been  an  excellent  citizen,  and  that  he  had  been  deprived  of 
his  country  by  a  conspiracy  of  bad  men  ;  that  it  was  not 
such  as  he,  who  were  always  sure  of  preeminence  in  the 
state,  that  desired  revolutions,  but  those  who  were  his  ene- 
mies, and  who  expected,  when  they  had  destroyed  worthy 
men,  to  be  looked  up  to  by  the  people  for  want  of  better. 


but  they  were  vain  and  light-minded,  and  always  under  the  influence 
of  reckless,  unprinc: pled  demagogues.  [There  does  not  seem  any  just 
reason  for  the  assumption,  that  Athens  would  have  anted  differently. 
There  are  at  least  as  many  instances  of  generosity  in  her  history,  as 
in  that  of  Sparta.  It  was  her  misfortune  that  several  (not  all)  of  her 
public  men  regarded  self-interest  rather  than  the  welfare  of  their  coun- 
try ;  but  this  is  the  case  unhappily,  in  all  countries,  and  not  less  so  under 
despotic,  than  under  democratic  forms  of  government.     J.  T.  S.] 


284  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Others  maintained  that  he  was  the  cause  of  all  the  evils 
that  had  befallen  the  city,  and  that  he  would  be  the  cause 
of  still  more.  He  remained  for  sometime  on  the  deck  of 
his  ship,  and  did  not  venture  to  quit  it  till  he  saw  a  num- 
ber of  his  relations  and  friends  among  the  people;  he 
then  landed,  and  went  up  to  the  city  in  the  midst  of  them. 
Before  the  senate  and  people  he  defended  himself  against 
the  charge  of  impiety.  No  one  spoke  in  reply,  for  no 
one  would  have  been  listened  to  against  him.  He  was  at 
once  appointed  commander-in-chief,  with  unlimited  power, 
as  the  only  person  capable  of  raising  the  state  to  its  former 
eminence.  To  give  Greece  a  public  proof  of  his  power, 
he  proposed  that  the  procession  of  the  Mysteries,  which, 
since  the  occupation  of  Deceleia,  had  been  obliged  to  go 
from  Athens  to  Eleusis  by  sea,  should  proceed,  as  before, 
along  the  Sacred  Road.  He  led  out  his  troops  to  protect 
it,  and  it  went  and  returned  unmolested. 

Having  obtained  one  hundred  ships,  one  thousand  five 
hundred  hoplites,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  horse,  he  sailed 
again,  three  months  after  his  return,  to  Samos,  to  carry  on 
the  war. 

But  matters  in  Asia  had  meantime  taken  a  turn  unfa- 
vorable to  the  interests  of  Alcibiades.  When  the  Athenian 
envoys  sent  from  Chalcedon  were  setting  out  for  Persia, 
they  met  Lacedaemonian  envoys,  just  returning,  who  said 
that  they  had  obtained  all  they  desired,  and  that  King 
Darius'  younger  son  Cyrus  was  coming  down  as  ruler  of 
the  whole  coast.  Cyrus  soon  arrived,  and  the  Athenians 
then  demanded  either  to  be  sent  on,  or  to  be  let  go  home. 
The  prince  wished  to  detain  them  ;  but  the  upright  satrap 
pleaded  his  oath,  and  after  a  delay  of  no  less  than  three 
years,  obtained  their  dismissal. 

The  Spartans  also  at  this  time  had  transferred  the  Asi- 
atic command  from  Cratesippidas,  the  successor  of  Minda- 
rus,  to  Lysander,  a  man  of  a  different  stamp  from  the  offi- 
cers whom  they  had  hitherto  sent  out.  On  his  arrival  in 
Asia  he  collected  a  fleet  of  seventy  ships,  with  which  he  re- 


CALLICRATIDAS.  285 

mained  quiet  at  Ephesus  till  Cyrus  came  to  Sardes,  and  he 
then  went  and  waited  on  him.  He  complained  of  the  con- 
duct of  Tissaphernes.  The  prince  said,  it  was  his  father's 
wish  that  he  should  aid  the  Lacedaemonians  effectually  ;  that 
he  had  brought  five  hundred  talents,  and  if  these  should  not 
suffice,  he  would  add  from  his  own  revenues,  and  even  coin 
the  gold  and  silver  throne  he  sat  on.  Lysander  begged  he 
would  raise  the  pay  of  the  sailors  to  a  drachma  a  man,  as 
the  Athenian  sailors  would  then  desert,  and  he  would  in 
reality  have  to  spend  less.  The  prince  pleaded  the  treaty 
and  his  father's  commands;  but  when  after  supper  he  drank 
to  Lysander,  and  bade  him  ask  a  gift,  he  craved  that  he 
would  add  an  obole  to  the  seamen's  pay.  Cyrus  no  longer 
refused :  it  was  raised  from  three  to  four  oboles  :  the  arrears 
were  paid  up,  and  a  month's  pay  issued  in  advance. 

The  Athenians  endeavored  in  vain,  through  Tissaphernes, 
to  influence  Cyrus  in  their  favor ;  the  prince  had  probably, 
as  will  appear,  his  own  reasons  for  rejecting  the  satrap's 
policy  of  causing  the  Greeks  mutually  to  weaken  each  other. 

Lysander,  whose  fleet  now  counted  ninety  ships,  remained 
at  Ephesus;  and  Alcibiades,  hearing  that  Thrasybulus  was 
at  Phocaea,  sailed  thither,  leaving  strict  orders  with  his  pilot 
Antiochus  not  to  make  any  attempt  on  the  enemy.  But  An- 
tiochus,  by  way  of  bravado,  went  with  some  ships  into  the 
harbor  of  Ephesus,  and  sailed  along  by  those  of  Lysander, 
who  launched  a  few  and  pursued  them.  Ships  came  to  their 
aid ;  Lysander  launched  his  whole  fleet ;  the  rest  of  the 
Athenian  ships  came  into  action  ;  a  general  engagement 
ensued  at  the  point  of  Notion,  and  the  Athenians  were  de- 
feated, with  the  loss  of  fifteen  ships.  Alcibiades  on  his  re- 
turn offered  battle  in  vain,  for  Lysander,  inferior  in  force, 
would  not  come  out.  The  people  at  Athens,  when  they 
heard  of  this  defeat,  threw  the  whole  blame  on  Alcibiades, 
(who  surely  was  guiltless,)  and  deprived  him  of  his  com- 
mand. He  retired  to  his  estates  in  the  Chersonese,  and 
Conon,  who  was  one  of  the  ten  generals  now  appointed, 
came  and  took  the  command  at  Samos. 


286  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

The  following  year,  (01.  93,  3,)  Lysander's  term  of  com- 
mand being  expired,  Callicratidas  came  out  to  replace  him. 
The  new  commander,  a  genuine  Spartan,  resolved  to  fight 
at  once;  and  summoning  the  ships  from  Rhodes  and  Chios, 
he  assembled  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  and  forty  triremes. 
Finding  that  Lysander's  friends  were  going  about  dispar- 
aging him  as  ignorant  of  naval  affairs,  he  called  the  Lace- 
daemonians together,  and  told  them,  that  if  they  did  not 
zealously  cooperate  with  him,  he  would  go  home,  and  re- 
port how  matters  were.  This  brought  them  to  order.  He 
then  went  to  Cyrus  for  money,  as  Lysander  had  sent  back 
to  the  prince  all  that  was  in  his  hands.  Being  told  to  wait 
for  two  days,  his  Spartan  pride  was  roused  at  the  indignity, 
and  he  went  away,  declaring  that  when  he  got  home  he 
would  do  his  utmost  to  reconcile  the  Athenians  and  Lace- 
daemonians, and  free  the  Greeks  from  the  disgrace  of  flat- 
tering the  Barbarians  for  money.  He  proceeded  to  Mile- 
tus, and  having  obtained  a  supply  from  the  people  of  that 
town,  he  sailed  to  Lesbos,  and  laid  siege  to  Methymne, 
which  he  took  by  assault.  When  urged  to  sell  the  Methym- 
naeans  with  the  other  captives,  he  replied,  that  no  Greek 
should  be  made  a  slave  whilst  he  had  the  command ;  and  he 
set  them  at  liberty. 

Conon,  who  had  reduced  his  fleet  from  upwards  of  one 
hundred  to  seventy  triremes,  with  picked  crews,  was  seen 
one  morn  at  daybreak  out  at  sea ;  and  Callicratidas,  who 
had  one  hundred  and  seventy  triremes,  instantly  gave  chase, 
and  got  between  him  and  Samos.  Conon  fled  to  Mytilene ; 
the  enemy  entered  the  harbor  with  him  ;  and  being  obliged 
to  fight  there,  he  lost  thirty  of  his  ships.  Callicratidas 
summoned  the  Methymnaeans  and  troops  from  Chios,  and 
besieged  the  town  by  sea  and  land.  Famine  began  to 
press,  and  there  wrere  no  hopes  of  relief  from  Athens,  where 
their  distress  was  unknown.  Conon,  therefore,  put  his 
best  rowers  into  two  of  his  swiftest  vessels,  and  in  the  heat 
of  the  day,  while  the  enemy  were  negligent  or  on  shore 
preparing  their  dinner,  they  rushed  out,  one  making  for  the 


BATTLE    OF    ARGINUS.E.  287 

Hellespont,  the  other  standing  out  to  sea.  Some  ships  cut 
their  cables  and  pursued,  and  the  latter  was  taken;  the 
first,  however,  escaped,  and  intelligence  was  thus  conveyed 
to  Athens. 

A  decree  was  passed  instantly  to  get  ready  one  hundred 
and  ten  ships,  and  for  all  of  the  proper  age,  both  freemen 
and  slaves,  to  embark.  In  thirty  days  this  fleet  was  on  its 
way  for  Samos,  where  it  was  joined  by  ten  Samian  triremes, 
and  by  thirty  of  those  of  the  other  allies.  The  whole  fleet 
finally  amounted  to  upwards  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  ves- 
sels, and  it  sailed  and  took  a  station  at  the  islets  named 
Arginusoe,  opposite  Lesbos.  Callicratidas,  when  he  heard 
that  the  Athenians  were  at  Samos,  put  to  sea  with  one 
hundred  and  twenty  ships,  leaving  fifty  to  blockade  Myti- 
lene.  He  landed  his  crews,  according  to  custom,  to  sup  at 
Cape  Malea  in  Lesbos,  on  the  very  evening  that  the  Athe- 
nians were  at  the  Arginusae;  and  learning  by  their  fires 
that  they  were  there,  he  was  putting  to  sea  again  at  mid- 
night in  hopes  of  surprising  them,  when  a  storm  of  rain 
and  thunder  came  on  and  prevented  him.  At  day-break 
he  sailed  for  the  Arginusoe  ;  the  Athenians  came  out  in 
order  of  battle ;  his  pilot,  seeing  their  superiority  in  num- 
ber, advised  him  to  retreat ;  but  he  replied,  that  Sparta 
would  not  be  the  worse  inhabited  if  he  were  dead,  and  that 
it  were  disgraceful  to  fly.  The  battle  lasted  a  considerable 
time;  at  length  Callicratidas,  in  driving  his  ship  against 
one  of  the  enemy's,  fell  overboard,  and  was  drowned.  The 
Peloponnesians  were  defeated  on  the  left :  the  rout  soon 
became  general :  some  fled  to  Chios,  some  to  Phocaea.* 

The  Athenians  returned  to  the  Arginusae  :  they  had  lost 
twenty-five  of  their  own  ships,  and  destroyed  upwards  of 
seventy  of  those  of  the  enemy.  It  was  resolved  to  leave 
Theramenes  and  Thrasybulus,  who  were  trier archs,  and 
some   taxiarchs,  with   forty  ships,  to  try  if  they  could   save 

*  After  this  battle  also  the  Lacedaemonians  sent  to  propose  a  peace, 
but  Cleophon  would  not  let  the  people  consent  to  it.  (Aristotle,  as 
quoted  by  the  Scholiast  on  Aristoph.  Frogs,  1580.) 


2S8  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

any  of  the  crews  of  the  sunken  ships,  and  with  the  rest  to  go 
and  raise  the  siege  of  Mytilene.  A  violent  storm  however 
came  on,  and  they  were  all  forced  to  take  shelter  at  the  Ar- 
ginusae,  leaving  the  unfortunate  crews  to  their  fate. 

Meantime  a  boat,  appointed  for  the  purpose,  brought  the 
news  of  the  loss  of  the  battle  to  Eteonicus,  who  was  con- 
ducting the  siege  of  Mytilene.  He  instantly  ordered  the 
crew  to  go  away  again,  and  to  return  crowned,  and  shout- 
ing out  that  Callicratidas  had  destroyed  the  whole  Athenian 
fleet.  He  offered  the  customary  sacrifices,  ordered  the  sol- 
diers to  take  their  meal,  and  bade  the  chapmen  embark  their 
goods  and  sail  away  with  the  triremes  for  Chios.  He  then 
set  fire  to  his  camp,  and  marched  over  land  to  Methymne. 
Conon  sailed  out  and  joined  the  victors  coming  from  the 
Arginusae,  and  the  whole  fleet  returned  to  Samos. 

Of  the  eight  generals  who  won  the  victory,  two,  Proto- 
machus  and  Aristogenes,  remained  at  Samos:  the  other  six* 
went  home  with  the  fleet.  On  their  arrival,  a  demagogue 
named  Archidamus  accusing  one  of  them,  Erasinides,  of  hav- 
ing embezzled  public  money  at  the  Hellespont,  he  was  cast 
into  prison.  The  others  then  gave  the  senate  an  account  of 
the  battle  and  the  storm.  A  person  named  Timocrates  pro- 
posed that  they  also  should  be  imprisoned,  and  the  senate 
assented.  Next  day  an  assembly  was  held,  and  Theramenes 
and  some  others  accused  the  generals  of  not  having  saved 
the  crews  of  the  wreck's.  They  separately  made  a  brief  de- 
fence, declaring  that  they  had  committed  this  duty  to  The- 
ramenes, Thrasybulus,  and  other  competent  persons,  and  that 
it  was  from  them,  if  any,  that  an  account  should  be  demanded ; 
but  that  in  reality  no  one  was  to  blame,  as  the  storm  had 
come  on  :  this,  they  said,  would  be  proved  by  the  pilots 
and  others  who  were  there.  The  people  were  moved ;  sev- 
eral persons  stood  up  offering  to  bail  them :  but  as  it  was 
too  late  to  discern  the  show  of  hands,  it  was  agreed  to  ad- 
journ the  assembly,  and  that  the  senate  should  decide  on  the 
form  of  trial. 

*  Namely,  Pericles,  Diomedon,  Lysias,  Aristocrates,  Thrasyllus, 
Erasinides. 


CONDEMNATION    OF    THE    GENERALS.  289 

The  festival  named  Apaturia,  in  which  parents  and  rela- 
tives were  wont  to  meet  together,  having  come  on,  Theram- 
enes  and  his  party  got  several  persons,  clad  in  black  with 
their  hair  cut  close,  to  come  to  the  assembly  as  the  mourn- 
ing relatives  of  the  dead  at  Arginusae;  and  they  induced  the 
orator  Callixenus  to  accuse  the  generals  in  the  senate.  On 
his  motion,  the  senate  decreed,  that  as  the  people  had  al- 
ready heard  the  accusation  and  the  defence,  they  should 
proceed  at  once  to  vote  in  their  tribes  by  ballot;  and  that 
if  the  generals  were  thus  found  guilty,  they  should  be  put 
to  death,  and  their  property  confiscated.  The  party  also, 
to  excite  the  passions  of  the  people,  got  a  man  to  come 
into  the  assembly  and  say  that  he  had  saved  himself  on  a 
meal-cask,  and  that  the  dying  men  had  charged  him  to  tell 
the  people  that  the  generals  had  left  them  to  perish.  Eu- 
ryptolemus,  and  some  other  friends  of  the  accused,  menaced 
Callixenus  with  impeachment  for  violation  of  the  consti- 
tution ;  but  the  faction  stirred  up  the  people,  who  cried  out 
in  the  true  spirit  of  ochlocracy,  that  it  was  hard  if  they  were 
not  to  be  suffered  to  do  as  they  pleased.  One  Lyciscus  then 
proposed,  if  they  persisted,  to  put  them  on  trial  along  with 
the  generals.  The  mob  became  violent,  and  they  deemed  it 
most  prudent  to  desist.  The  Prytanes  (presidents)  refusing 
to  let  the  people  vote  thus  illegally,  Callixenus  got  up  and 
accused  them.  The  mob  bellowed  as  before  :  all  the  Pry- 
tanes, except  the  celebrated  Socrates,  lost  courage  and  gave 
way.  Euryptolemus  then  rose  to  make  a  last  effort  for  the 
generals.  Affecting  to  be  in  some  measure  their  accuser, 
he  prayed  that  they  might  be  tried  separately,  an  entire  day 
being  given  for  the  trial  of  each ;  and  he  took  this  occasion 
of  again  stating  the  real  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  show- 
ing that  no  one  had  been  to  blame.  The  people  voted  for 
his  proposal :  but  a  second  show  of  hands  being  demanded 
by  the  other  party,  it  was  in  favor  of  that  of  the  senate. 
The  ballot  then  went  on ;  the  eight  generals  were  condemned, 
and  the  six  who  were  present  immediately  executed. 

A  more  iniquitous  sentence  than  this  is  no  where  to  be 

25  KK 


290  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

found.  The  ignorance  and  the  blind  superstition  of  the 
people  with  regard  to  the  importance  of  sepulture  was  taken 
advantage  of  by  Theramenes  and  the  oligarchic  party,  who 
wished  to  establish  their  own  power  on  the  ruin  of  their 
country,  and  therefore  sought  to  deprive  it  of  its  best  and 
ablest  citizens ;  for  the  generals  were  all  either  of  the  ori- 
ginal aristocratic  party,  that  always  was  true  to  its  country, 
or  of  the  friends  of  Alcibiades,  now  a  sincere  patriot.*  It  is 
some  slight  alleviation  of  the  guilt  of  the  people  to  learn, 
that  they  very  soon  afterwards  saw  their  injustice  and  la- 
mented it,  and  that  a  decree  was  passed  directing  the  prose- 
cution of  those  who  had  deceived  them.  Callixenus  and  four 
others  were  cast  into  prison :  they  however  soon  after  escaped 
in  a  tumult ;  but  Callixenus  afterwards  perished  of  hunger, 
an  object  of  general  aversion. 

It  would  appear  as  if  Heaven  was  resolved  to  punish  this 
national  iniquity,  for  it  was  soon  followed  by  the  ruin  of 
Athens.  The  Chians  and  the  other  allies  of  the  Lacedae- 
monians, having  met  at  Ephesus,  sent  deputies  to  Lacedae- 
mon,  praying  that  Lysander  might  be  sent  out  to  resume 
the  command.  Cyrus  also  sent,  expressing  the  same  desire  ; 
and  the  Spartans,  not  to  violate  their  rule  of  never  giving  a 
supreme  naval  command  twice  to  the  same  person,  appointed 
him  (Ol.  93,4)  to  be  vice-admiral  (enicrrokrig)  to  the  admiral, 
Aracus.  He  straight  repaired  to  Ephesus,  where  he  col- 
lected all  the  ships  he  could,  and  he  built  others  at  Antan- 
dros.  Being  well  supplied  with  money  by  Cyrus,  he  paid 
the  seamen  all  their  arrears  of  wages,  and  prepared  every 
thing  needful  for  the  war.  He  then  sailed  to  Rhodes,  and 
thence  to  the  Hellespont,  where  he  took  and  plundered 
Lampsaciis.  Conon,  and  those  who  had  been  appointed  in 
the  place  of  the  murdered  generals,'!"  followed  him  from  Samos, 
and  came  with  one  hundred  and  eighty  ships  to  Eleiis  in  the 

*  Pericles  was  the  son  of  the  great  Pericles  by  Aspasia.  Diomedon 
and  Thrasyllus  have  been  already  mentioned. 

t  Namely,  Philocles,  Adeimantus,  Tydeus,  Menander,  and  Cephi- 
sodotus. 


BATTLE    OF    iEGOSPOTAMI.  291 

Chersonese.  On  hearing  of  the  fate  of  Lampsacus,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  Sestos,  and  thence  to  ^Egospotami,  (ulybg  noiafiol^ 
or  the  Goat's  River,  opposite  Lampsacus,  the  space  between 
them  being  about  fifteen  stadia.  Next  morning  at  sunrise 
they  sailed  across  and  offered  battle,  which  was  refused,  and 
in  the  evening  they  returned  to  the  river.  Lysander  then 
sent  some  of  his  swiftest  vessels  after  them,  to  observe  and 
bring  him  word  of  what  they  were  doing,  and  he  kept  his 
men  on  board  till  they  returned.  These  manoeuvres  were 
repeated  on  both  sides  for  four  days. 

Alcibiades,  who,  from  the  summit  of  his  castle,  could 
perceive  every  thing  on  both  sides  of  the  strait,  observed  that 
while  the  Athenians  had  to  leave  their  ships  and  go  as  far  as 
Sestos  (fifteen  stadia)  to  purchase  provisions,  their  enemies 
lay  in  a  harbor  close  to  a  town  whence  they  drew  their 
supplies.  He  came  to  the  generals  and  advised  them  to  re- 
move to  Sestos;  but  they  rejected  his  advice  with  scorn, 
telling  him  that  the  command  was  theirs,  not  his  :  he  there- 
fore left  them  to  their  fate. 

On  the  fifth  day,  Lysander  directed  those  who  went 
after  the  Athenians,  if  they  saw  them  scattered  over  the 
country  in  quest  of  provisions,  to  raise  a  shield  as  they  were 
returning.  At  the  signal  he  put  his  whole  fleet  in  motion. 
Conon,  seeing  them  approach,  made  a  signal  for  the  Athe- 
nians to  get  on  board,  but  they  were  too  far  off  to  return 
in  time.  Seeing  all  lost,  he  put  to  sea  with  his  own  and 
seven  other  ships  which  had  their  crews  on  board,  and  the 
Paralian.  He  crossed  over  to  Abarnis,  where,  to  prevent 
pursuit,  he  seized  the  large  sails  of  Lysander's  fleet  which 
were  there,*  and  then,  despairing  of  his  country,  sailed  to 
Cyprus  with  his  eight  ships.  The  Paralian  carried  the  news 
to  Athens. 

The  entire  fleet  fell  into  Lysander's  hands  :  a  part  of  the 
crews  became  his  captives ;  the  rest  escaped  to  the  fortresses 
in  the  vicinity.     He  carried  the  whole  over  to  Lampsacus,  and 

*  The  Greeks  always  took  the  large  sails  out  of  their  ships  when 
preparing  to  engage. 


292  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

4fc^£„yery  day  despatched  a  Milesian  privateer  with  the  tidings 
to  Lacedasmon  ;  and  such  was  the  speed  of  this  vessel,  that 
she  reached  Laconia  on  the  third  day.  He  then  held  a  council 
of  the  allies  respecting  the  prisoners.  Most  were  for  sever- 
ity, as  the  Athenians  had  passed  a  decree  directing  their 
generals,  if  victorious,  to  cut  off  the  right  hands  of  the  cap- 
tives, and  had  drowned  the  crews  of  an  Andrian  and  a 
Corinthian  ship  which  they  had  taken.  It  was  resolved  to 
put  all  to  death  except  Adeimantus,  who  had  voted  against 
mutilating  the  captives.*  Lysander  first  put  to  death  Phi- 
locles,  the  general  who  had  drowned  the  Andrians  and  Co- 
rinthians ;  the  rest,  to  the  number  of  three  thousand,  were 
then  slaughtered.  He  sailed  thence  to  Byzantion  and  Chal- 
cedon,  which  surrendered.  All  the  Athenians  whom  he 
found  there  and  elsewhere  he  dismissed,  giving  them  strict 
injunctions  to  proceed  to  Athens,  and  no  where  else ;  for  his 
object  was  to  produce  a  scarcity  as  soon  as  possible,  by 
filling  that  city  with  people.  In  each  town  he  left  a  Lace- 
daemonian harmost,  and  appointed  ten  governors  (aQ/oviag) 
out  of  the  clubs  formed  every  where  by  himself  for  his  own 
views.t 

It  was  night  when  the  Paralian  entered  the  Piraeeus  :  wail- 
ing and  lamentation  spread  thence  up  the  Long  Walls  to  the 
city.  No  one  slept  that  night :  they  mourned  their  relatives ; 
they  deplored  their  own  fate,  expecting  to  suffer  the  evils  they 
had  inflicted  on  the  Melians,  the  JEginetes,  the  Scionians, 
and  so  many  others.  In  the  morning  an  assembly  was  held, 
and  it  was  resolved  to  fill  up  all  the  ports  but  one,  to  repair 
the  walls,  and  to  prepare  for  a  siege. 

Lysander  was  now  coming  from  the  Hellespont  with  two 
hundred  ships:  every  subject  and  ally  of  Athens  but  the 
Samian  Demos  had  fallen  off.  Troops  from  all  parts  of 
Peloponnesus,  except  Argos,  entered  Attica  under  King  Pau- 

*  Adeimantus  was  accused  of  having  betrayed  the  fleet  to  Lysander. 
(Xen.  Hell.  ii.  1,  32.  Lys.  in  Alcib.  143,  22.)  The  same  charge  was 
made  against  Tydeus.  (Paus.  iv.  17,  3;  x.  9,  11.) 

t  Plut.  Lysander,  13. 


SURRENDER    OF    ATHENS.  293 

sanias  ;  they  were  joined  by  those  from  Deceleia,  and  they 
encamped  at  the  Academy  close  to  Athens.  Lysander  at 
the  same  time  appeared  before  the  Piraeeus  with  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  ships.  To  raise  the  character  of  Sparta,  he 
had  on  his  way  collected  all  the  Melians,  JEgmetes,  and 
other  exiles  he  could  find,  and  restored  them  to  their 
country. 

The  Athenians,  though  thus  blockaded  by  sea  and  land, 
thought  not  of  a  surrender  till  food  began  to  fail,  and  many 
had  actually  died  of  hunger.  They  then  sent  to  King  Agis, 
offering  to  become  the  allies  of  the  Lacedsemonians,  on  con- 
dition of  their  walls  being  left.  He  bade  them  carry  their 
proposals  to  Lacedoemon.  At  Sellasia,  on  the  Laconian 
frontier,  their  deputies  were  met  by  messengers  from  the 
Ephors,  telling  them  to  return  if  they  had  nothing  better  to 
propose.  Their  return  plunged  the  people  in  despair,  who 
now  expected  slavery  at  the  best.  The  famine  increased  : 
but  no  one  ventured  to  speak  of  pulling  down  the  walls ;  for 
when  Archestratus,  a  senator,  had  said  that  it  were  better 
to  comply  with  the  requisition  of  the  Lacedsemonians  and 
to  pull  down  ten  stadia  of  them,  as  was  required,  he  had 
been  cast  into  prison  ;  and  on  the  motion  of  Cleophon,  a 
decree  was  passed  forbidding  the  subject  to  be  again  men- 
tioned.* Theramenes  then  came  forward,  and  proposed  to 
go  to  Lysander,  and  ascertain  whether  it  was  merely  with 
a  view  to  their  own  future  security,  or  with  a  design  to 
make  slaves  of  the  people,  that  the  Lacedaemonians  insisted 
on  the  demolition  of  the  walls.  He  went,  and  staid  away 
three  months,  probably  expecting  that  hunger  would  mean- 
time have  made  the  people  glad  to  accept  any  terms.  They 
however  endured,  for  supplies  were  stolen  into  the  port  and 
over  the  walls,  as  the  city  was  not  surrounded.     Meantime 

*  It  was  probably  on  this  occasion  that  Cleophon,  as  described  by 
iEschines,  (False  Embassy,  38,  10,)  threatened  to  cut  the  throat  of  any 
one  who  should  even  speak  of  peace.  Cleophon  may  have  been  an 
honest,  well-intentioned  man.  He  died  poor.  (Lysias,  on  the  property 
of  Aristophanes,  651, 1.) 
25* 


294  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

the  oligarchic  party  were  not  idle;  they  directed  their  efforts 
against  Cleophon,  against  whom  they  brought  a  charge  of 
shrinking  from  his  military  duty,  and,  having  packed  a  jury, 
had  him  found  guilty  and  executed.* 

In  the  fourth  month  Theramenes  came  back,  and  said  that 
he  had  been  detained  by  Lysander,  who  now  declared  that 
he  must  go  to  Sparta  and  treat  with  the  Ephors.t  He  him- 
self and  nine  others  were  sent  thither  with  full  powers.  On 
their  arrival  a  congress  was  held  :  the  Corinthians,  Thebans, 
and  others  were  urgent  for  the  total  ruin  of  Athens ;  but 
the  Lacedaemonians,  more  generous  or  more  politic,  declared 
that  they  would  not  consent  to  enslave  a  city  which  had 
rendered  such  services  to  Greece.  They  offered  peace,  on 
the  conditions  of  their  throwing  down  the  entire  of  the  Long 
Walls  and  those  of  the  Piraeeus,  giving  up  all  their  ships 
but  twelve,  recalling  the  exiles,  and  becoming  the  offensive 
and  defensive  allies  of  Sparta.  With  these  terms  Theram- 
enes and  his  colleagues  returned  to  Athens.  The  starving 
people  gathered  round  them,  fearing  lest  they  might  have 
effected  nothing.  Next  day  the  terms  of  peace  were  de- 
clared :  Theramenes  advised  to  accept  them ;  a  few  only 
ventured  to  oppose.  The  peace  was  made;  Lysander  en- 
tered the  Piraeeus:  the  exiles  returned;  all  the  minstrel 
women  in  the  city  and  camp  were  assembled,  and  the  walls 
were  pulled  down  to  the  sound  of  their  music ;  it  being 
deemed,  says  Xenophon,|  that  this  was  the  first  day  of  lib- 
erty to  Greece.  (Ol.  94,  1.) 

*  Lysias,  Agoratus,  130,  40.  As  Xenophon  (i.  7,  37)  says  that  Cal- 
lixenus  escaped  out  of  prison  in  a  tumult  (aruaig)  in  which  Cleophon 
lost  his  life,  he  was  probably  liberated  by  the  oligarchs  on  this  occasion. 

t  Lysias  (as  above)  says  nothing  of  Theramenes  having  gone  to  Ly- 
sander and  staid  so  long  with  him,  a  circumstance  in  itself  not  very 
probable.  According  to  him,  Theramenes  promised  the  people  that  if 
they  sent  him  to  Sparta  with  full  powers,  he  would  obtain  them  peace 
without  the  demolition  of  their  walls  or  any  other  loss,  and  it  was  at 
Sparta  that  he  made  the  delay. 

t  The  coolness  with  which  this  bad  citizen  relates  the  ruin  of  his 
country  is  not  to  be  endured. 


DEATH    OF    ALCIBIADES.  295 

Lysander  then  sailed  to  Samos,  where  the  people  surren- 
dered on  condition  of  being  allowed  to  depart  each  with  a 
single  garment.  He  gave  the  city,  and  all  in  it,  to  the 
aristocrats,  who  had  been  expelled,  and  set  his  ten  govern- 
ors over  it;  and  having  dismissed  the  ships  of  the  allies, 
sailed  home  with  the  Laconian  ships  and  those  he  had  taken 
out  of  the  Piraeeus.  He  brought  with  him  the  beaks  of  the 
ships  he  had  taken,  the  crowns  given  him  by  the  different 
cities,  and  four  hundred  and  seventy  talents  in  money. 

Thus,  after  a  duration  of  seventy-three  years,  terminated 
the  dominion  of  Athens.  It  had  been  exercised  tyrannically, 
no  doubt,  but  it  had  been  the  means  of  advancing  all  the 
arts  that  adorn  life ;  and  were  it  not  that  nothing  can  justify 
a  departure  from  the  rigid  rule  of  right,  we  might  agree 
with  those  who  think  that  the  advantages  gained  for  man- 
kind by  it  were  worth  the  purchase.  Our  blame  of  the 
Athenians  must  be  tempered  by  justice ;  the  conduct  of  the 
Spartans  when  in  power  was  little  less  tyrannical  than  theirs, 
and  perhaps  no  people  of  those  times  would  have  acted 
much  better. 

The  author  of  the  ruin  of  his  country  did  not  long  sur- 
vive its  independence.  Alcibiades  died  the  very  year  in 
which  Athens  surrendered.  Of  the  manner  of  his  death 
there  is  no  doubt ;  the  causes  assigned  differ.  It  appears, 
that  after  the  ruin  of  the  Athenian  power,  he  feared  to  re- 
main in  the  Chersonese,  and  passed  over  to  Asia  with  the 
intention  of  going  up  to  Susa.  While  he  was  in  Phrygia,  it 
is  said,  the  Thirty  at  Athens  sought  to  impress  Lysander  with 
the  idea  that  as  long  as  he  lived  the  Spartan  power  would 
never  be  secure ;  and  that,  moreover,  at  the  instance  of  King 
Agis,  instructions  were  sent  to  him  from  home  to  destroy 
Alcibiades  if  possible.  Lysander  then  required  Pharnabazus 
to  be  the  agent,  and  the  satrap  sent  his  uncle  and  his  brother 
with  armed  men  to  the  village  where  Alcibiades  was  resid- 
ing with  his  mistress  Timandra.  The  Persians,  fearing  to 
attack  him,  set  fire  to  the  house ;  Alcibiades  rushed  through 
the  flames,  his  sword  in  one  hand,  his  cloak  round  the  other 


296  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

arm ;  but  he  fell  by  the  missiles  of  the  cowardly  assassins. 
Another  account  says  that  he  had  seduced  a  woman  of 
respectable  family,  and  that  it  was  her  brothers  who,  to 
be  avenged  for  the  insult  offered  to  their  family,  set  fire 
to  his  house  and  killed  him.  When  we  consider  the 
honorable  character  of  the  satrap,  and  the  licentious 
habits  of  Alcibiades,  the  latter  account  may  possibly  appear 
the  more  probable  one. 

Alcibiades  was  a  man  who  would  have  made  a  figure  in 
any  country,  from  the  brilliancy  and  variety  of  his  talents. 
Vanity  was  the  ruling  passion  of  his  soul.  Pericles  aspired 
to  greatness  through  the  greatness  of  Athens;  Alcibiades 
would  be  great,  he  cared  not  how.  He  did  his  country  the 
utmost  injury;  he  sought  to  repair  it,  and  would  have  done 
so,  but  for  the  party  who  drove  him  a  second  time  into  exile, 
and  then,  as  it  is  asserted,  caused  him  to  be  murdered. 


CHAPTER  XL* 


THE  THIRTY  TYRANTS. DEATH  OF  THERAMENES. RETURN 

OF  THE  EXILES. END  OF  THE  TYRANNY. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  establishment  of  an  oli- 
garchy at  Athens  had  been  previously  arranged  between 
Theramenes  and  Lysander.  Soon  after  the  latter  had  gone 
to  Samos,  Theramenes  sent  to  recall  him,  and  he  suddenly 
reentered  the  Piraeeus.  An  assembly  was  then  held,  at 
which  he  was  present,  to  determine  on  the  changes  to  be 
made  in  the  constitution.  Theramenes  proposed  that  thirty 
persons  should  be  chosen,  with  unlimited  powers,  to  write 
out  the  ancient  laws  by  which  the  state  should  be  governed.! 

*  Xen.  ii.  3, 4.     Diodor.  xiv.  1—6,  32,  33. 
t  Like  the  Decemvirs  at  Rome. 


THE    THIRTY    TYRANTS.  297 

The  people  murmured.  Theramenes  said  he  did  not  care 
for  their  murmurs,  since  many  Athenians  thought  as  he  did, 
and  Lysander  and  the  Lacedaemonians  approved  of  it.  Ly- 
sander  told  them,  that  as  they  had  violated  the  peace,  by  not 
pulling  down  their  walls  till  after  the  appointed  time,  their 
lives  and  liberty  were  at  stake  if  they  did  not  do  as  The- 
ramenes desired.  Some  then  went  away,  others  abstained 
from  voting;  the  rest  elected  ten  persons  designated  by 
Theramenes  himself,  ten  by  the  presidents  of  the  oligarchic 
clubs,  and  ten  out  of  those  present.  The  government  being 
thus  regulated,  the  Peloponnesians  evacuated  Attica.* 

Critias,  a  man  descended  from  the  brother  of  Solon,  was 
one  of  the  Thirty.  He  had  been,  like  Alcibiades,  a  hearer 
of  Socrates,  and,  like  him  too,  to  learn  eloquence  and  poli- 
tics, not  wisdom.  His  character  was  firm  and  energetic, 
and  he  scrupled  at  no  means  to  accomplish  his  projects. 
He  hated  democracy,  and  was  bent  on  establishing  the  firm 
rule  of  a  few  or  of  one.  He  was  in  some  sort  the  Sulla  of 
Athens.  Charicles,  a  man  of  similar  character,  aided  him  in 
all  his  measures,  and  they  kept  their  less  strong-minded  col- 
leagues in  a  state  of  subjection. 

To  keep  up  some  of  the  forms  of  the  constitution,  the 
Thirty  appointed  a  senate,  most  of  the  members  of  which 
had  belonged  to  the  Four  Hundred.  They  further  appointed 
ten  persons  for  the  Piraeeus,  and  eleven  for  the  city,  to  per- 
form the  duties  of  the  former  police  magistrates.  They  then 
announced  that  it  was  requisite  to  purge  the  state  of  evil- 
doers, and  excite  the  remaining  citizens  to  justice  and  vir- 
tue ;  and,  with  the  approbation  of  all,  they  seized  and  put 
to  death  the  notorious  sycophants,  the  pests  of  the  city. 

The  Thirty  now  felt  imboldened  by  the  favor  they  had 
thus  acquired,  and  they  resolved  to  strengthen  and  perpet- 
uate their  power.  They  sent  to  Lysander,  and  by  his  in- 
fluence obtained    a  Spartan  garrison,  to  aid,  they  said,  in 

*  Lysias,  Eratosthenes,  126,  127.  Diodorus  makes  quite  a  patriot-hero 
of  Theramenes  on  this  occasion;  so  much  so  that  Lysander,  he  says, 
threatened  to  slay  him. 

LL 


298  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

putting  down  the  ill-disposed  and  establishing  the  constitu- 
tion. They  undertook  to  support  these  troops,  and  paid 
the  greatest  court  to  Callibius,  who  came  as  harmost.  They 
then  seized  and  put  to  death,  not  the  bad,  but  those  from 
whom  they  most  apprehended  opposition  to  their  projects. 
These  were  chiefly  the  members  of  the  ancient  aristocracy, 
such  as  Niceratus  the  son,  and  Eucrates  the  brother,  of  Ni- 
cias;  Antiphon,  son  of  Lysonides ;  Leon,  of  Salamis ;  Ly- 
cophron,  father  of  the  orator  Lycurgus.  It  is  asserted  that 
the  whole  number  of  persons  put  to  death  by  the  Thirty 
amounted  to  fifteen  hundred.*  To  destroy  the  democratic 
spirit,  they  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  its  great  aliments,  sea- 
faring and  oratory.  They  sold,  that  they  might  be  de- 
stroyed, for  three  talents,  the  docks  which  had  cost  eleven 
hundred ;  t  they  forbade  instruction  to  be  given  in  oratory, 
and  turned  the  pulpit  (P%u-u)  of  the  orators  in  the  Pnyx, 
which  had  faced  the  sea,  to  the  land  side. 

Theramenes  had  at  first  cooperated  with  Critias  and 
his  friends,  but  when  he  saw  them  putting  to  death  worthy 
men,  merely  on  account  of  their  influence  with  the  people, 
he  began  to  remonstrate  against  it.  Again,  observing  that 
people  were  wondering  what  the  constitution  at  length 
was  to  be,  he  told  them  that  if  they  did  not  contrive  to  in- 
terest a  sufficient  number  in  it,  they  never  could  maintain 
the  oligarchy.  They  then  chose  three  thousand  to  occupy 
the  place  of  the  former  Five  Thousand.  Theramenes  ob- 
jected to  this  number ;  they  had  intended,  he  said,  that  the 
more  respectable  citizens  should  share  in  the  government, 
and  did  they  suppose  that  the  Three  Thousand  alone,  and 
all  of  them,  were  such  ;  so  that  they  were  further  commit- 
ting the  error  of  making  a  government  of  force,  while  the 
snperiority  rested  with  the  governed.  To  obviate  this 
objection,  all  the  citizens  were  ordered  to  appear  in  arms, 
the  Three   Thousand    in   the   market,  the   rest   elsewhere 

*  iEschines,  False  Embassy,  38,  15.  Ctesiphon,  87,  20.  Isocrates 
Areop.  151. 

t  Isocrates,  as  above. 


DEATH    OF    THERAMENES.  299 

The  arms  of  all  the  latter  were  then,  by  order  of  the  Thirty, 
seized  by  their  partisans,  and  by  the  Lacedaemonian  garrison, 
and  carried  up  to  the  Acropolis.  Freed  now,  as  they  thought, 
from  apprehension,  they  gave  a  loose  to  their  evil  passions : 
some  were  put  to  death  out  of  private  enmity,  others  for  their 
wealth.  To  obtain  the  means  of  keeping  their  engagements 
with  the  garrison,  who  were  their  main  support,  the  Thirty 
now  agreed  among  themselves  that  each  of  them  should 
take  one  of  the  metoecs,  many  of  whom  were  wealthy,  by 
trade  and  manufacture,  and  put  him  to  death,  and  seize  his 
property.  Theramenes,  on  being  desired  to  select  his  vic- 
tim, refused.  Critias  and  his  party  saw  plainly  that  he  or 
they  must  fall ;  they  therefore  began  to  malign  him  privately 
to  each  of  the  senators,  and  then,  having  given  directions 
to  a  number  of  daring  youths,  their  partisans,  to  come  to  the 
senate-house  with  daggers  hid  in  their  sleeves,  they  called 
the  senate  together.  Critias  rose,  and  accusing  Theramenes 
as  a  traitor  and  enemy  to  the  present  order  of  things, 
demanded  his  execution.  Theramenes  defended  himself 
with  eloquence  and  vigor,  and  showed  that,  in  opposing 
the  violence  and  injustice  of  his  colleagues,  he  had  been 
the  true  friend  of  the  new  constitution.  The  senate  was 
ready  to  declare  in  his  favor,  when  Critias,  having  spoken 
a  few  words  with  the  Thirty,  went  out  and  desired  the  armed 
men  to  advance  and  let  themselves  be  seen.  He  then  came 
in,  and  told  them  it  was  his  duty  not  to  suffer  them  to  be  de- 
ceived; that  those  who  were  standing  there  without  would 
not  allow  them  to  let  a  man  escape  who  was  openly  injur- 
ing the  oligarchy;  that  as  it  was  now  the  law  that  none  in 
the  list  of  the  Three  Thousand  could  be  put  to  death  without 
their  vote,  but  that  the  Thirty  might  condemn  any  one  not 
in  that  list,  "  I,"  said  he,  "  strike  out,  with  your  consent,  the 
name  of  Theramenes,  and  we  sentence  him  to  death !  "  The- 
ramenes sprang  to  the  altar,  and  implored  them  not  to  suf- 
fer the  law  to  be  thus  violated.  He  knew,  he  said,  the  altar 
would  be  no  protection  to  him,  but  his  enemies  should  be 
guilty  of  impiety  as  well  as  injustice.     The  herald  of  the 


300  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Thirty  called  to  the  Eleven  to  advance  and  seize  him.  These 
and  their  servants  dragged  him  from  the  altar,  vainly  calling 
on  gods  and  men.  The  senators  sat  mute  with  terror, 
seeing  themselves  encompassed  with  armed  men.  Therame- 
nes  was  led  through  the  market,  loudly  exclaiming  against 
the  iniquity  of  the  Thirty.  In  the  prison  he  was  forced  to 
drink  the  hemlock-juice,*  and  when  he  had  finished  his 
draught,  he  flung  out  what  remained  in  the  cup,  saying, 
"  This  to  the  handsome  Critias  !  "  t 

This  constancy  and  calmness  in  death,  a  thing  they 
greatly  admired,  has  gained  Theramenes  the  praises  of  some 
eminent  men  among  the  ancients,  and  Cicero  even  classes 
him  with  Socrates. f  Yet  it  is  difficult  to  see  in  what  he 
was  superior  to  Critias.  A  love  of  justice  and  humanity 
can  hardly  be  ascribed  to  the  murderer  of  the  generals  at 
Arginusae,  the  man  who  starved  his  fellow-citizens  into  sub- 
mission to  their  enemies  ;  and  perhaps  his  present  opposition 
may  more  justly  be  attributed  to  jealousy  of  Critias,  whom 
he  felt  to  be  his  superior,  to  want  of  vigor  of  character,  or 
it  may  be  to  prudence,  than  to  any  nobler  motive. 

The  Thirty  now  deemed  that  they  might  exercise  their 
tyranny  without  restraint.  They  issued  orders  for  those  who 
were  not  in  the  catalogue  not  to  enter  the  city,  and  they 
seized  their  lands  for  themselves  and  their  friends.  When 
those  thus  expelled  retired  to  the  Pirseeus,  they  drove  them 
thence;  and  Argos,  Megara,  and  Thebes  (now  favorable 
to  democracy)  were  filled  with  Athenian  exiles.     The  Spar- 

*  It  speaks  well  for  the  Athenian  character  that  they  should  have 
adopted  this  mild  mode  of  taking  away  life. 

t  In  allusion  to  the  trick  named  xorra;?oc,  an  amusement  of  young 
men  at  their  drinking-parties,  when  they  either  threw  or  let  drop  what 
remained  in  their  cup  into  a  brazen  vessel,  naming  the  object  of  their 
affection,  and  from  the  sound  it  made  they  learned  their  fortune  in  love. 

t  Cicero,  Tusc.  i.  40.  Diodorus  too  makes  him  a  martyr  for  liberty. 
It  is  strange  that  Aristotle  (Plut.  Nicias,  2)  should  have  ranked  him  as 
a  sincere  patriot  with  Nicias  and  with  Thucydides  the  son  of  Milesias. 
The  suspicion  that  on  points  of  history  Aristotle  is  not  always  the  very 
best  authority,  has  more  than  once  crossed  our  mind. 


RETURN    OF    THE    EXILES.  301 

tans  issued  a  barbarous  edict,  ordering  them  to  be  surren- 
dered ;  but  none  obeyed  it. 

Among  those  at  Thebes  was  Thrasybulus.  He  had  been 
for  some  time  watching  his  opportunity  to  attempt  the  over- 
throw of  the  tyranny  of  the  Thirty,  and  he  now  set  out  with 
but  seventy  companions  and  seized  Phyle,  a  strong  place  on 
the  frontiers  of  Attica  and  Bceotia.  The  Thirty  left  the 
city  with  the  Three  Thousand  and  the  Horsemen,  and  came 
to  attack  it.  Being  repulsed,  they  were  preparing  to  circum- 
vallate  it;  but  in  the  night  there  came  on  a  heavy  fall  of 
snow,  (it  was  mid-winter,)  and  next  day  they  went  back  to 
the  city.  Apprehending  that  the  country  would  be  ravaged 
by  those  in  Phyle,  they  sent  the  greater  part  of  the  garrison 
and  two  troops  of  horse  to  occupy  a  position  within  fifteen 
stadia  of  it.  Thrasybulus,  who  had  now  seven  hundred 
men  with  him,  set  out  at  night,  and  halted  within  three  or 
four  stadia  of  their  camp ;  and  when  he  heard  them  stirring 
in  the  morning,  he  suddenly  fell  upon  them,  killed  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  men,  and  pursued  them  for  six  or  seven 
stadia. 

The  Thirty  now  grew  uneasy,  and  began  to  think  of  se- 
curing some  place  of  refuge  in  case  of  their  being  driven 
from  Athens.  Eleusis  appearing  to  be  the  place  best  adapt- 
ed, they  resolved  to  make  it  their  own.  They  set  out  there- 
fore one  day  with  the  Horsemen  for  that  town,  and  telling 
the  people  that  they  wished  to  know  their  numbers  and 
what  garrison  they  might  send,  desired  them  to  give  in  their 
names.  As  each  person's  name  was  set  down,  he  was  di- 
rected to  go  out  at  a  small  gate  leading  to  the  sea.  The 
Horsemen  were  stationed  on  the  beach,  at  each  side  of  the 
gate,  and  their  servants  seized  and  bound  every  one  as  he 
came  out.  The  prisoners  were  carried  to  Athens.  Next 
day  the  Horsemen  and  the  Three  Thousand  were  assembled 
in  the  Odeion,  or  music-theatre,  one  half  of  which  was  occu- 
pied by  the  Lacedaemonian  garrison  under  arms.  Critias 
then  told  them,  that  as  the  present  government  was  as  much 
for  their  benefit  as  for  that  of  the  Thirty,  they  must  share  in 
26 


302  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  dangers  as  well  as  the  advantages,  and  openly  vote  the 
death  of  the  prisoners.  Some  therefore  voting  from  incli- 
nation, some  from  fear,  the  prisoners,  three  hundred  in  num- 
ber, were  condemned  and  executed. 

Thrasybulus  soon  ventured  on  bolder  measures.  He  had 
now  a  thousand  men  with  him  at  Phyle,  and  setting  out  one 
night,  he  came  and  occupied  the  Piraeeus.  The  Thirty  col- 
lected all  their  troops  to  dislodge  them  :  the  exiles,  too  few 
to  defend  so  large  a  place,  retired  to  Munychia.  Here  the 
two  parties  encountered.  Critias  and  Hippomachus,  one  of 
his  colleagues,  and  about  seventy  of  their  men,  were  slain  : 
the  rest  turned  and  fled  to  the  city.  The  victors  took  the 
arms  of  the  slain,  but  touched  not  their  clothes.  The  bodies 
were  restored  as  usual ;  and  this  giving  occasion  for  dis- 
course, Cleocritus,  the  herald  of  the  Mysteries,  addressed 
the  adherents  of  the  Thirty,  praying  them  to  lay  aside,  all 
hostility  to  their  fellow-citizens,  and  to  cease  to  obey  those 
who,  in  eight  months,  had  put  more  Athenians  to  death  than 
had  fallen  by  the  hands  of  the  Peloponnesians  in  ten  years 
of  the  war.*  The  Thirty,  fearing  the  effect  of  speeches  like 
this,  led  their  men  back  to  the  city  ;  but  what  had  been  said 
had  its  effect :  being  now  without  the  able  and  daring  Crit- 
ias, they  were  deposed,  having  held  their  power  but  four 
months  :  they  retired  to  Eleusis,  and  ten  persons  (one  from 
each  phyle)  were  appointed  in  their  stead  to  negotiate  with 
those  in  the  Piraeeus,  (ol  tx  ITeiguiag.)  But  the  Ten  also 
resolved,  if  possible,  to  have  absolute  power,  and  they  were 
supported  in  their  projects  by  the  Horsemen,  and  by  a  part 
of  the  Three  Thousand.  The  guard  of  the  city  was  main- 
tained by  the  former,  who  slept  in  the  Odeion,  having  their 
horses  always  ready  bridled  at  hand. 

Meantime  great  numbers  had  joined  those  at  the  Piraeeus, 
for  isotely  t  was  offered  to  any  strangers  who  would  share 

*  Xenophon.  Isocrates  (Panegyr.  CO)  says  more  in  three  months  than 
the  state  had  condemned  during  the  whole  period  of  its  dominion. 

t  That  is,  equality  of  civic  rights  to  a  certain  extent.  The  isotcle 
paid  the  same  taxes  as  the  genuine  citizen,  (whence  his  name  ;)  he  could 


END    OF    THE    TYRANNY.  303 

in  the  danger.  They  armed  themselves  in  the  best  way 
they  could;  some  were  hoplites,  others  light-armed,  and 
about  seventy  fiorse,  and  various  slight  actions  occurred 
between  them  and  those  in  the  city. 

Both  the  Thirty  and  those  in  the  city  sent  to  Lacedaemon 
to  inform  the  government  there  of  the  revolt,  as  they  termed 
it,  of  the  people.  Lysander,  fearing  that  his  work  would 
be  all  undone,  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  in  their  favor; 
he  procured  them  a  loan  of  one  hundred  talents,*  got  him- 
self appointed  harmost  by  land,  and  had  a  fleet  given  to  his 
brother  Libys,  to  attack  the  Piraeeus  by  sea.  Those  in  the 
Piraeeus  would  have  been  thus  reduced  to  extremity,  were  it 
not  for  the  state  of  parties  at  Sparta,  of  which  they  had  prob- 
ably been  aware ;  for  King  Pausanias,  envious  of  Lysander, 
gained  a  majority  of  the  Ephors,  and  led  in  person  a  force 
to  Attica.  All  the  allies  sent  their  required  contingents, 
except  the  Corinthians  and  Thebans,  who  saw  that  the  ob- 
ject of  the  Lacedaemonians  was  to  make  Attica  their  own 
dominion.  Pausanias,  being  joined  by  Lysander  and  his 
mercenaries,  encamped  near  the  Piraeeus,  and  sent  to  order 
those  who  were  there  to  retire  and  disperse.  On  their  re- 
fusal, he  made  a  slight  attack,  that  his  inclinations  toward 
them  might  not  be  suspected.  Next  day,  as  he  was  reti- 
ring with  some  troops  after  viewing  the  place,  he  directed 
some  of  them  to  drive  off  those  from  the  Piraeeus  who  were 
following  and  harassing  them  :  this  brought  on  a  smart  ac- 
tion, in  which  the  Athenians  were  worsted.  He  raised  a 
trophy,  and  then,  without  showing  any  anger,  sent  privately 
to  advise  them  to  send  deputies  to  him,  and  the  Ephors  who 
were  with  him ;  he   at  the   same  time  directed  his  party  in 

purchase  land,  and  marry  an  Athenian  ;  but  he  could  not  hold  office, 
vote  in  the  assembly,  or  sit  in  a  court  of  justice  :  he  answered  to  the 
municeps  of  the  Romans.  Lysias,  the  orator,  who  wasametcec,  distin- 
guished himself  on  this  occasion  by  giving  2000  drachmas,  200  shields, 
and  hiring  300  mercenaries. 

*  Which  loan  was  honorably  recognized  and  paid  by  the  people  after 
the  expulsion  of  the  Thirty. 


304  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  city  to  assemble  and  express  their  desire  for  an  accom- 
modation ;  and  both  having  obeyed,  he  sent  their  deputies 
to  Lacedasmon.  The  Ten  and  their  friends  also  sent  depu- 
ties thither ;  and  fifteen  commissioners  came  from  Sparta, 
charged,  in  conjunction  with  Pausanias,  to  reconcile  all 
parties.  Peace  was  made  by  their  mediation,  the  only  per- 
sons excepted  being  the  Thirty,  the  Eleven,  and  the  Ten  of 
the  Piraeus  :  any  of  these,  however,  who  chose  to  abide  the 
Euthyne  might  claim  to  resume  their  rights ;  and  any  of 
those  in  the  city  who  feared  to  stay  might  retire  in  safety  to 
Eleusis.  Pausanias  then  led  off  his  troops:  the  men  of  the 
Piraeeus  marched  in  arms  up  to  the  Acropolis,  and  offered 
sacrifice  to  Pallas  Athena.  An  assembly  was  then  held; 
Thrasybulus  addressed  those  of  the  city,  reminding  them  of 
their  injustice  toward  the  people  and  of  their  present  impo- 
tence, and  having  concluded  by  recommending  good  faith 
and  moderation  to  his  own  party,  he  dismissed  the  assembly. 
Some  time  after,  hearing  that  those  in  Eleusis  were  hiring 
mercenaries,  they  all  (navdi^iet)  marched  out  against  them ; 
and  having  invited  their  leaders  to  a  conference,  treacher- 
ously put  them  to  death.  A  reconciliation  was  then  effected 
with  the  remainder,  a  general  amnesty  (the  first  on  record, 
which  does  honor  to  the  Athenian  character,  and  was  faith- 
fully kept)  was  sworn  to,  and  it  was  resolved  to  return  as  far 
as  was  possible  to  the  constitution  of  Solon.  Thrasybulus, 
by  his  entire  conduct,  deserved  the  fame  which  he  has  ac- 
quired of  an  excellent  and  patriotic  citizen.  He  restored 
concord  to  his  country,  and  independence  as  far  as  he  could  ; 
but  the  rebuilding  of  the  Long  Walls,  which  alone  could 
free  Athens,  was  reserved  for  another  brave  and  meritorious 
citizen.  Thrasybulus,  however,  is  not  to  carry  away  all  the 
fan>3  of  this  noble  act  of  patriotism.  The  civil  merits  of  his 
coadjutor,  Archinus,  exceeded  his ;  most  of  the  beneficial 
measures  which  were  now  adopted  were  brought  forward 
by  the  latter  :  the  name  of  Cephalus,  too,  is  to  be  held  in 
honor.* 

*  Sve  Taylor's  Life  of  Lysias,  prefixed  to  that  orator's  works. 


RETREAT    OF    THE    TEN    THOUSAND.  305 

The  archon  of  this  year  (Ol.  94,  2)  was  Eucleides,  and 
it  became  a  common  practice  to  reckon  from  it  as  a  kind  of 
era,  the  preceding  year  being  termed  that  of  the  Anarchy, 
(dti'tin/La.)*  The  Athenians,  in  the  year  of  Eucleides, 
among  other  changes  adopted,  on  the  proposal  of  Archinus, 
the  more  complete  alphabet  used  by  the  Ionians. 


CHAPTER    Xll.f 

RETREAT    OF    THE    TEN  THOUSAND. DEKCYLLIDAS    IN    ASIA. 

CONSPIRACY      OF      CINADON.  AGESILAUS      IN     ASIA. 

CORINTHIAN     OR    FIRST     BffiOTIAN     WAR.  VICTORIES     OF 

CONON.  EXPLOIT     OF    IPHICRATES. PROGRESS      OF    THE 

WAR.  PEACE    OF    ANTALCIDAS. 

On  the  death  of  Darius,  king  of  Persia,  (Ol.  93,  4,)  his  son 
Cyrus,  favored  by  his  mother  Parysatis,  prepared  to  contest 
the  throne  with  his  elder  brother  Artaxerxes.  Having  had 
opportunity  to  observe  the  great  superiority  of  the  Greek 
troops,  he  resolved  to  engage  a  large  body  of  them  in  his 
pay ;  and  the  present  peace,  which  left  a  number  of  soldiers 
without  employment,  was  favorable  to  his  views.  Clear- 
chus,  the  Lacedaemonian,  and  some  other  officers,  were  fur- 
nished by  him  with  money  to  raise  troops,  and  he  was  thus 
enabled  to  have  10,000  Greeks  in  the  army,  which  he  led 
(Ol.  94,  4)  from  Asia  Minor  over  the  Euphrates.  A  battle 
was  fought  between  the  royal  brothers  at  Cunaxa  in  Baby- 
lonia. Cyrus  fell  in  the  action,  and  his  Barbarian  troops 
fled ;  but  his  Greek  auxiliaries  defeated  those  opposed  to 
them.  All  the  arts  of  treachery  were  employed  against  them 
by   the   King,    acting   under   the    advice   of  Tissaphernes. 

*  That  is,  the  year  without  (legal)  magistrates, 
t  Xen.  iii.  iv.  v.   1.  Diod.  xiv.  35—39,  79—86,  94,  97—99,  110. 
Plut.  Agesilaus. 

26*  MM 


306  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Their  leaders  were  enticed  to  a  conference,  at  which  they 
were  treacherously  put  to  death  ;  hut  the  troops  appointed 
new  officers,  among  whom  was  Xenophon,  the  celebrated 
Athenian,  and  setting  the  Persian  empire  at  defiance,  accom- 
plished their  retreat  through  the  mountains  of  Carduchia 
(Kurdistan)  and  Armenia,  and  reached  the  shores  of  the 
Euxine  with  little  loss.. 

This  celebrated  retreat,  known  by  the  name  of  the  Retreat 
of  the  Ten  Thousand,  has  been  finely  narrated  in  detail  by 
Xenophon,  who  conducted  it ;  and  the  proof  which  it  afford- 
ed of  the  real  weakness  of  the  Persian  empire  led  afterwards 
to  most  important  results. 

Tissaphernes,  on  account  of  the  services  he  had  rendered 
his  master,  was  now  rewarded  with  the  government  of  all  the 
countries  which  had  been  ruled  by  Cyrus.  But  the  Ionian 
cities,  fearing  and  disliking  him,  refused  their  obedience. 
They  implored  protection  of  Sparta,  and  (01.  95,  2)  Thim- 
bron  came  out  as  harmost  with  an  army  of  one  thousand 
Neodamodes  and  four  thousand  Peloponnesians.  The 
Athenians,  on  being  required  to  furnish  cavalry,  sent  three 
hundred  of  those  who  had  supported  the  Thirty,  deeming 
that  their  loss  would  be  a  gain  to  the  people. 

On  account  of  the  great  superiority  of  the  Persians  in  cav- 
alry, Thimbron  did  not  at  first  venture  to  descend  into  the 
plain;  but  when  joined  by  the  Cyrean  Greeks,*  he  felt  him- 
self strong  enough  to  act  on  the  offensive.  Some  towns 
joined  him ;  a  few  others  he  took  by  assault.  Having  failed 
in  an  attempt  on  a  place  named  the  Egyptian  Larissa,  he 
was  proceeding,  by  the  direction  of  the  Ephors,  to  Caria, 
when  he  was  met  at  Ephesus  by  Dercyllidas,  who  was  come 
out  to  replace  him.  On  his  return  he  had  to  go  into  exile, 
as  the  allies  convicted  him  of  having  allowed  his  army  to 
plunder  them.  Dercyllidas,  who  for  his  craft  was  named 
Sisyphus,  having  been  in  Asia  with  Lysander,  knew  the  ill 
feeling  which  existed  between  the  two  satraps  ;  and  wishing 

*  That  is,  the  remains  of  the  Ten  Thousand. 


DERCYLLIDAS     IN    ASIA.  307 

to  gratify  an  old  grudge  against  Pharnabazus,  he  proposed  a 
truce,  which  was  readily  accepted  by  Tissaphernes.  He 
then  led  his  army  with  the  greatest  order  and  discipline  to 
iEolis,  which  province  he  speedily  reduced,  taking  nine 
towns,  by  composition,  in  eight  days.  As  winter  was  ap- 
proaching, and  he  was  anxious  not  to  burden  the  friendly 
states,  like  Thimbron,  he  made  a  peace  for  them  with  Phar- 
nabazus, and  led  his  troops  into  the  Thracian  Bithynia, 
which  he  knew  he  might  plunder  with  the  good  will  of  the 
satrap. 

In  spring,  (01.  95,  3,)  he  came  to  Lampsacus,  where  he 
was  met  by  deputies,  sent  from  home  to  announce  to  him 
the  satisfaction  of  the  government  with  the  conduct  of  him- 
self and  his  troops,  and  to  continue  him  in  his  command  for 
another  year.  They  also  told  him  that  the  people  of  the 
Chersonese  had  sent  to  request  that  a  wall  might  be  built 
across  their  isthmus  to  protect  them  from  the  incursions 
of  the  Thracians.  Dercyllidas,  without  telling  them  what 
he  intended  to  do,  sent  them  home  along  the  coast,  that  they 
might  see  the  happy  condition  of  the  Grecian  towns;  he  then 
renewed  the  truce  with  Pharnabazus,  and  having  conveyed 
his  troops  over  the  Hellespont,  built  in  the  course  of  the 
summer  a  wall,  thirty-seven  stadia  long,  from  sea  to  sea,  thus 
giving  security  to  eleven  flourishing  towns  and  a  most  fertile 
region.  On  his  return  to  Asia,  learning  that  the  Chian 
exiles  had  fixed  themselves  at  Atarneus,  whence  they  plun- 
dered Ionia,  he  besieged  their  strong-hold,  which  he  reduced 
after  a  siege  of  eight  months. 

The  Asiatic  Greeks  had  sent  deputies  to  Sparta,  stating 
that  it  was  in  the  power  of  Tissaphernes  to  acknowledge 
their  independence,  and  giving  it  as  their  opinion  that  an 
invasion  of  Caria,  where  his  property  lay,  would  force  him 
to  it.  Orders,  therefore,  were  sent  out  to  Dercyllidas  and 
the  admiral,  Pharax,  to  attack  that  province.  On  their 
invading  it,  (01.  95,  4,)  Tissaphernes,  who  was  now  joined 
by  Pharnabazus,  marched  to  its  defence,  and  having  placed 
sufficient  garrisons  in  it,  returned  to  Ionia.     When  Dercyl- 


308  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

lidas  heard  of  their  having  recrossed  the  Masander,  he  set 
out  to  the  defence  of  Ionia.  He  also  had  passed  the  river, 
when  some  of  the  Ephesians  who  were  in  advance  saw 
scouts  standing  on  the  tombs  by  the  way -side  :  they  ascended 
the  adjacent  tombs  and  towers,  and  then  beheld  the  whole 
Persian  army,  which  the  lofty  standing  corn  had  hitherto 
concealed.  Dercyllidas  lost  no  time  in  drawing  up  his 
army.  The  Peloponnesians,  of  course,  stood  firm;  but  the 
Asiatic  Greeks  and  the  islanders  began  to  slink  away,  leav- 
ing their  arms  in  the  corn;  and  it  was  plain  that  those  who 
staid  would  soon  follow  their  example.  In  the  other  army, 
Pharnabazus  was  for  fighting;  but  Tissaphernes,  who  had 
had  experience  of  the  Cyrean  Greeks,  and  who  thought  that 
all  Greeks  were  the  same,  resolved  first  to  try  negotiation. 
Dercyllidas  received  the  envoys  surrounded  by  his  most 
showy  officers  and  men.  It  was  agreed  that  the  Persians 
should  retire  to  Tralles,  the  Greeks  to  Leucophrys,  for  the 
night,  and  meet  in  the  morning  at  an  appointed  place. 
Next  day  Dercyllidas  proposed  that  the  independence  of  the 
Grecian  cities  should  be  acknowledged  by  the  King :  the 
satraps  assented,  provided  the  Grecian  army  evacuated  the 
King's  dominions,  and  the  Lacedaemonians  withdrew  their 
harmosts  from  the  cities.  These  terms  were  agreed  on,  and 
a  truce  made  till  the  return  of  the  envoys,  who  were  to  be 
sent  to  procure  the  ratifications  at  Sparta  and  Susa. 

While  Dercyllidas  was  thus  maintaining  the  Lacedaemo- 
nian name  and  influence  in  Asia,  King  Agis  waged  a  war 
(Ol.  94,  4 — 95,  2)  against  the  Eleians  at  home,  whom  he 
forced  to  restore  all  their  Perioecian  towns  to  independence. 
Agis  dying  shortly  afterwards,  (Ol.  95,  4,)  the  succession 
was  disputed  by  his  son  Leotychides  and  his  brother  Agesi- 
laus.  The  legitimacy  of  the  former  was  very  dubious;  his 
mother  had  been  strongly  suspected  of  an  improper  familiarity 
with  Alcibiades,  and  Agis  had  frequently  said  that  he  was 
no  son  of  his.  Aided,  therefore,  by  the  powerful  interest 
of  Lysander,  Agesilaus  gained  the  majority  of  votes  in  the 
assembly,  and  was  declared  King. 


CONSPIRACY    OF    CINADON.  309 

He  had  not  been  a  year  on  the  throne  when  a  conspiracy, 
the  first  we  hear  of  at  Sparta,  was  discovered.  A  person 
came  to  the  Ephors,  and  told  them  that  a  young  man  named 
Cinadon,  who,  though  a  citizen,  was  not  of  the  Equals,  (ol 
6uoioi})*  had  led  him  to  one  end  of  the  market,  and  bidden 
him  count  what  Spartans  were  in  it.  When  he  had  counted 
the  king,  ephors,  elders,  and  others,  to  the  number  of  about 
forty,  and  asked  what  this  meant,  he  told  him  to  regard  these 
as  enemies  and  all  the  rest  as  friends,  and  that  in  the  country 
towns  he  would  in  like  manner  find  one  enemy,  a  Spartan, 
and  many  friends.  He  added,  that  those  privy  to  his  design 
were  few,  but  that  they  well  knew  that  the  Helots,  the  Neo- 
damodes,  the  inferior  Spartans,  and  the  Perioecians,  all  of 
whom  hated  the  Spartans,  would  join  in  it ;  he  then  led  him 
away,  and  showed  him  a  great  quantity  of  swords,  daggers, 
axes,  hatchets,  sickles,  and  other  weapons  to  arm  them. 
The  Ephors  were  greatly  dismayed  at  this  revelation,  of  the 
truth  of  which  they  could  not  doubt ;  they  did  not  venture 
to  call  the  Little  Council,f  but  having  consulted  with  the 
senators  separately,  they  resolved  to  send  Cinadon  to  Aulon 
to  fetch  some  of  the  Aulonites  and  the  Helots :  and  the  men 
who  were  to  go  with  him  were  to  have  secret  orders  to  seize 
him.  As  Cinadon  had  often  been  similarly  employed,  he  had 
no  suspicion.  The  plan  succeeded ;  he  was  seized,  and  made 
to  give  the  names  of  the  conspirators  :  the  list  was  forwarded 
to  Sparta,  and  those  named  in  it  were  arrested.  Cinadon 
was  then  brought  thither  and  examined :  when  asked  his 
reason  for  conspiring,  "  It  was,"  said  he,  "  that  I  might  be 
inferior  to  no  one  in  Lacedaemon."  He  and  his  accomplices 
were  scourged,  led  round  the  city,  and  then  put  to  death. 

About  this  time  intelligence  was  brought  to  Sparta  that 
the  Persians  were  getting  a  large  fleet  ready  for  sea  in 
Phoenicia;  and,  as  it  was  thought  likely  that  it  was  destined 

*  That  is,  of  genuine  old  Dorian  descent.  The  number  of  these 
families  was  now  very  small. 

t  This  consisted  of  the  ephors,  senators,  and  such  of  the  Equals  as 
they  summoned  to  it. 


310  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

to  act  against  Greece,  a  council  of  the  allies  was  summoned 
to  deliberate  on  it.  Lysander,  considering  the  naval  supe- 
riority of  the  Greeks,  and  the  retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand, 
urged  Agesilaus  to  propose  an  invasion  of  Asia,  if  they 
would  give  him  30  Spartans,  2000  Neodamodes,  and  6000 
of  the  allies;  he  also  proposed  to  accompany  him,  and 
restore  the  decarchies  which  the  Ephors  had  suppressed. 
This  plan  of  the  campaign  was  adopted.  (Ol.  96,  1.) 

Agesilaus,*  wishing  to  emulate  the  ancient  Peloponnesian 
monarch  Agamemnon,  who,  when  about  to  invade  Asia,  had 
sacrificed  at  Aulis  in  Bceotia,  proceeded  to  that  place.  But 
as  he  was  sacrificing,  the  Boeotarchs,  for  what  reason  we  are 
not  told,  sent  down  some  horsemen,  who  threw  the  victims 
off  the  altar,  and  forbade  him  to  sacrifice.  Agesilaus, 
having  appealed  to  the  gods,  embarked  and  sailed  to  Ephesus. 
On  his  arrival,  Tissaphernes  proposed  a  truce  till  the  King's 
pleasure  should  be  known.  The  truce  was  sworn  to;  but 
the  faithless  satrap,  instead  of  observing  it,  sent  to  the  King 
for  more  troops.  Agesilaus,  though  aware  of  what  he  was 
doing,  remained  quiet  at  Ephesus. 

While  he  staid  here,  the  Asiatic  Greeks  paid  so  much 
court  to  Lysander,  whom  they  knew,  that  the  King  seemed 
insignificant  in  comparison.  This  mortified  Agesilaus  and 
the  other  Spartans ;  but  fearing,  or  not  wishing,  to  offend 
Lysander  openly,  he  only  showed  his  sense  of  it  by  refusing 
the  requests  of  those  whom  he  recommended.  Lysander 
soon  srw  through  his  design,  and  requested  to  be  sent  away 
from  Ephesus.  Agesilaus  gladly  sent  him  to  the  Hellespont, 
where  finJing  a  Persian,  named  Spithridites,  offended  with 
Pharnabazus,  he  persuaded  him  to  desert,  and  brought  him 
to  Agesilaus,  who  obtained  from  him  much  useful  infor- 
mation. 

Tissaphernes,  in  reliance  on  the  army  which  was  on  its 
march  to  join  him,  now  declared  war  against  Agesilaus  if 

*  When  reading  the  exploits  of  this  prince,  and  of  the  Spartan  com- 
manders at  this  time  in  general,  we  must  remember  that  our  authority 
is  their  panegyrist. 


AGESILAUS    IN    ASIA.  311 

he  did  not  quit  Asia.  "  I  give  him  thanks,"  replied  he,  "  for 
having  by  his  perjury  made  the  gods  his  enemies  and  our 
allies."  He  ordered  his  troops  to  get  ready  to  march,  and 
directed  the  towns  on  the  way  to  Caria  to  prepare  provisions, 
and  those  on  the  north  to  forward  their  contingents  of  troops. 
The  satrap,  aware  of  Agesilaus'  want  of  cavalry,  and  of  his 
personal  animosity  to  himself,  judged  that  he  would  make 
Caria,  where  his  property  lay,  and  which  was  a  rugged 
country,  the  scene  of  war.  He  sent  therefore  all  his 
infantry  thither,  keeping  his  numerous  cavalry  in  the  plain 
of  the  Mceander.  Agesilaus,  however,  suddenly  turned  into 
Phrygia,  and  plundered  it ;  but  near  Dascylion  his  cavalry 
fell  in  with  a  Persian  body  of  horse  of  equal  force,  and  had 
the  worst  of  it.  He  therefore  fell  back  to  Ephesus,  and 
being  now  convinced  that  without  horse  he  never  could 
move  in  the  plains,  he  proclaimed  through  the  towns  that 
any  one  who  would  furnish  a  horse  and  horseman  should  be 
himself  exempt  from  service.  By  this  means  he  soon  had 
cavalry,  for  the  wealthy  and  luxurious  lonians  and  iEolians 
gladly  avoided  the  toils  and  dangers  of  war. 

In  the  spring,  (01.  96,  2,)  he  assembled  all  his  troops  at 
Ephesus,  and  by  proposing  prizes  to  those  who  should  excel 
in  the  various  martial  exercises,  he  greatly  increased  the 
skill  and  raised  the  confidence  of  his  men.  As  a  means  of 
making  them  despise  the  Barbarians,  he  had  such  of  them 
as  were  taken  by  the  privateers  sold  naked,  that  the  white- 
ness of  their  skin  might  be  seen,  and  their  effeminacy  be 
thence  inferred  by  the  soldiers. 

Their  year  being  now  expired,  Lysander  and  the  Thirty 
returned  home ;  and  when  their  successors  came  out,  Agesi- 
laus gave  orders  to  march  for  Sardes.  Tissaphernes,  think- 
ing this  to  be  only  a  feint,  and  that  Caria  was  the  real  object 
of  attack,  disposed  his  army  as  before ;  but  Agesilaus  kept 
his  word,  and  on  the  fourth  day  he  engaged  and  totally 
defeated  the  Persian  horse  on  the  banks  of  the  Pactolus. 
Their   camp,  with  property  to  the  amount  of  more  than 


312  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

seventy  talents,  was  taken.  The  camels  found  in  it  were 
afterwards  brought  to  Greece  as  curiosities. 

Tissaphernes,  who  had  remained  at  Sardes,  was  loudly 
accused  by  the  Persians  of  having  betrayed  them,  and  soon 
after  Tithraustes  came  down  from  Susa  with  orders  to  be- 
head him  and  take  his  satrapy.  The  crafty  and  treacherous 
Tissaphernes  being  thus  removed,  his  successor  made  pro- 
posals of  peace,  offering  on  the  part  of  the  King  to  leave 
the  cities  to  themselves  on  their  paying  the  old  tribute. 
Agesilaus  replied  that  he  must  consult  his  government. 
Tithraustes  then  desired  that  he  would  meantime  remove 
into  the  territory  of  Pharnabazus.  Agesilaus  demanded 
supplies ;  the  satrap  sent  him  thirty  talents,  and  he  entered 
Pharnabazus'  part  of  Phrygia.  While  he  was  here,  he 
learned  that  he  had  been  invested  with  the  supreme  com- 
mand, by  land  and  sea,  in  Asia.  He  forthwith  sent  orders 
to  the  cities  of  the  coast  and  isles  to  equip  a  hundred  and 
twenty  triremes ;  he  also  made  Peisander,  his  wife's  brother, 
—  a  brave  man,  but  one  who  knew  nothing  of  the  sea, — 
admiral  in  the  room  of  Pharax,  who  appears  to  have  been 
an  officer  of  some  skill ;  but  family  interest  prevails  at  all 
times,  and  with  most  men. 

Tithraustes,  perceiving  that  Agesilaus  had  no  notion  of 
quitting  Asia,  and  that  it  was  only  by  making  a  diversion 
that  he  could  drive  him  away,  gave  a  Rhodian,  named  Timoc- 
rates,  fifty  talents  in  money,  and  sent  him  to  Greece,  with 
directions  to  distribute  them  among  the  leading  men  in  the 
cities,  and  engage  them  to  stir  up  war  against  the  Lacedae- 
monians. Timocrates  disposed  of  the  money  at  Thebes, 
Corinth,  and  Argos.  The  Athenians  were,  without  it,  ready 
enough  to  go  to  war  on  the  first  opportunity. 

The  Thebans,  aware  that  the  Lacedaemonians  would 
not  commence  hostilities,  urged  the  Opuntian  Locrians  to 
plunder  some  land  which  was  disputed  between  them  and 
the  Phocians.  This,  as  was  expected,  produced  an  invasion 
of  Locris  by  the  Phocians.     The  Locrians  called  on  the 


AGESILAUS    IN    ASIA.  313 

Thebans,  who  forthwith  entered  Phocis;  the  Phocians  sent 
to  Lacedaemon  for  aid,  and,  glad  of  a  fair  pretext  to  avenge 
the  former  insults  and  injuries  of  the  Thebans,  and  elate  with 
the  successes  of  Agesilaus  in  Asia,  the  Spartan  government 
sent  Lysander  to  Phocis,  directing  him  to  assemble  an  army 
of  Phocians,  CEteans,  Melians,  and  others  at  Haliartus,  where 
he  would  be  joined  on  a  certain  day  by  King  Pausanias  with 
a  Peloponnesian  army.  Lysander  did  as  he  was  directed, 
and  he  induced  the  Orchomenians  to  revolt  from  the 
Thebans. 

The  Thebans  sent  forthwith  an  embassy  to  Athens  apologi- 
zing for  their  former  conduct  toward  the  people,  but  remind- 
ing them  of  their  late  services,  and  hinting  that  Athens  had 
now  an  opportunity  of  recovering,  and  even  extending  her 
supremacy,  as  the  Lacedaemonians  had  made  themselves  so 
many  enemies.  Thrasybulus  and  his  friends  aided  them  with 
their  influence,  and  a  decree  was  passed  to  assist  the  The- 
bans if  Bceotia  should  be  invaded. 

Lysander,  at  the  appointed  time,  without  waiting  for  Pau- 
sanias, advanced  under  the  walls  of  Haliartus,  and  tried  to 
induce  the  people  to  revolt.  Failing  in  this,  he  attacked  the 
town  :  the  Thebans  came  with  all  speed,  both  horsemen  and 
hoplites,  to  its  relief.  Lysander  fell  in  the  action,  and  his 
men  fled  to  a  hill,  closely  pursued  by  the  Thebans.  Here 
they  turned,  and  casting  darts  and  rolling  down  stones,  they 
drove  them  back,  with  the  loss  of  upwards  of  two  hundred 
men.  During  the  night  they  dispersed,  and  returned  to 
their  homes.  When  the  Thebans  in  the  morning  found  them 
gone,  they  were  greatly  elated  ;  but  the  appearance  of  King 
Pausanias  with  his  army  damped  their  joy.  The  Athenians, 
however,  arriving  next  day,  they  prepared  to  give  battle ;  but 
Pausanias  having  held  a  council  with  his  officers,  it  was 
deemed  more  advisable  to  try  to  obtain  the  bodies  of  Ly- 
sander and  those  who  fell  with  him  by  a  truce.  The  The- 
bans would  restore  the  bodies  only  on  condition  of  their 
quitting  Bceotia,  and  these  terms  were  excepted.  Pausanias, 
on  his  return,  was  tried  for  his  life,  both  on  account  of  his 

27  NN 


314  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

conduct  on  this  occasion,  and  his  former  behavior  at  Athens. 
To  escape  the  sentence  of  death  which  was  passed  on  him, 
he  fled  to  Tegea,  where  he  died. 

The  Spartan  government,  perceiving  the  confederacy  that 
was  formed  against  them,  resolved  to  recall  Agesilaus  to  the 
defence  of  his  country.  This  able  prince  had  been  uni- 
formly successful  in  Asia.  Guided  by  Spithridates,  he  had 
wasted  and  plundered  Phrygia,  and  penetrated  to  Paphla- 
gonia;  the  prince  of  which  country,  Cotys,  formed  an  alli- 
ance with  him,  and  gave  him  one  thousand  horse  and  two 
thousand  peltasts.  Agesilaus  negotiated  a  marriage  be- 
tween the  son  of  Cotys  and  a  daughter  of  Spithridates,  and 
a  Lacedaemonian  trireme  was  directed  to  convey  the  maiden 
from  Cyzicus,  where  she  was  residing.  This  affair  being 
concluded,  Agesilaus  proceeded  to  winter  at  Dascylion,  the 
hereditary  property  of  Pharnabazus.  The  satrap's  fine  parks 
were  destroyed,  the  trees  cut  down,  and  the  villages  plun- 
dered by  the  soldiery.  He  was  himself  reduced  to  the  con- 
dition of  a  wanderer,  and  a  Spartan  officer  named  Herip- 
pidas,  by  a  sudden  attack  one  morning,  took  his  camp  and 
most  of  his  portable  property.  But  Herippidas,  in  his 
anxiety  to  make  a  great  show  of  booty,  forced  Spithridates 
and  the  Paphlagonians  to  give  up  their  plunder  ;  and  this 
was  in  their  eyes  such  injustice,  that  they  went  off  in  the 
night  to  Sardes  to  join  Ariaeus,  who  had  been  in  the  service 
of  Cyrus,  and  was  now  again  in  revolt.  This  event  annoyed 
Agesilaus  very  much,  as  it  was  so  calculated  to  derange 
his  plans. 

His  plan,  in  fact,  was  to  dismember  the  Persian  empire,  by 
inducing  the  satraps  and  subject  princes  to  assert  their  in- 
dependence. In  an  interview  which  he  had  shortly  afterwards 
with  Pharnabazus,  he  sought  to  excite  him  to  revolt :  the  sa- 
trap was  too  honorable  to  do  this  ;  but  he  freely  acknowl- 
edged his  ideas  of  allegiance  to  be  such,  that  if  the  King  were 
to  put  a  satrap  over  him  in  his  own  country,  he  should  con- 
sider himself  justified  in  forming  an  alliance  with  the  Greeks. 
Agesilaus,  satisfied  with  this,  promised  to  withdraw  his  army, 


THE    CORINTHIAN    WAR.  315 

and  to  abstain  from  Pharnabazus'  country  as  long  as  there 
was  any  other  to  plunder.  He  then  led  his  troops  to  the 
plain  of  Thebes,  on  the  coast,  and  began,  it  being  now  spring, 
(OI.  96,  3,)  to  make  preparations  for  pushing  on  for  the  heart 
of  the  Persian  empire,  reckoning  that  all  the  nations  in  his 
rear  would  be  lost  to  the  King.  It  is  evident  that  in  form- 
inor  this  bold  plan  he  was  guided  by  the  advice  of  his  friend 
and  panegyrist  Xenophon,  who  had  conducted  the  retreat 
of  the  Ten  Thousand. 

It  was  therefore  with  sincere  grief  that  Agesilaus  re- 
ceived the  summons  to  abandon  these  brilliant  prospects,  and 
return  to  fight  against  Greeks.  He,  however,  hesitated  not 
to  obey :  he  called  the  allies  together,  and  told  them  of  the 
necessity  he  was  under  of  leaving  them,  but  promised  a 
speedy  return.  The  assembly  shed  tears,  and  voted  troops 
to  the  aid  of  Lacedaemon.  By  offering  prizes,  Agesilaus 
obtained  select  and  well-appointed  troops,  and  then  leaving 
Euxenus  as  harmost,  with  four  thousand  men  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  towns,  he  crossed  the  Hellespont  and  pursued 
the  route  for  Greece  formerly  trodden  by  Xerxes. 

The  confederacy  against  the  Lacedaemonians,  created  by 
their  own  insolence  and  tyranny,  and  by  the  gold  of  Persia, 
had  now  assumed  a  formidable  appearance  It  consisted  of 
Boeotia,  Athens,  Argos,  Corinth,  Acarnania,  most  part  of 
Thessaly,  Eubcea,  and  Chalcidice.  Deputies  from  most  of 
these  states  met  at  Corinth.  The  troops  of  the  confederates 
also  assembled  there,  as  it  was  judged  best  to  make  Laconia, 
or  at  least  its  vicinity,  the  seat  of  war ;  for,  as  Timolaus  the 
Corinthian  said  in  the  council,  the  Lacedaemonians  were  like 
a  river,  which  is  small  and  fordable  at  its  source,  but  is  in- 
creased by  others  as  it  flows  ;  for  they  are  few  when  setting 
out,  but  become  formidable  by  the  accession  of  auxiliaries. 
He  also  likened  them  to  wasps,  which  are  most  safely  de- 
stroyed by  putting  fire  to  their  nest.  The  Lacedaemonians 
were  meantime  on  the  advance  to  engage  the  confederates. 
They  had  6000  hoplites  of  their  own,  and  600  horse.  Elis 
and  its  vicinity  sent  them  about  3000 ;  Sicyon,  1500 ;  Epi- 


316  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

daurus,  Troezen,  Hermione,  3000  :  they  were  also  joined  by 
the  troops  of  Tegea  and  Mantineia,  but  their  numbers  are  not 
given.     They  had  300  Cretan  archers,  and  about  400  slingers. 

In  the  confederate  army  there  were  6000  Athenian  hop- 
lites,  7000  Argive,  3000  Corinthian,  5000  Boeotian,  3000 
EubcEan  ;  there  were  S00  Boeotian,  and  600  Athenian  horse- 
men, 100  from  Chalcis  in  Eubcea,  and  50  from  Opuntian 
Locris.     Their  light  troops  were  very  numerous. 

The  Lacedaemonian  army  assembled  at  Sicyon.  As  they 
advanced  through  the  hilly  country,  they  were  annoyed  by 
the  light  troops  of  the  enemy ;  but  when  they  reached  the 
sea,  and  got  into  the  plain,  they  wasted  the  country  at  their 
will.  The  confederates  advanced  to  engage  them.  The 
Boeotians,  who  were  on  the  left,  fearing  the  Lacedaemonians, 
who  were  opposite  them,  declared  the  sacrifices  unfavorable  ; 
but  when  the  Athenians  had  changed  places  with  them,  they 
found  the  sacrifices  propitious,  and  gave  the  signal  to  engage. 
In  the  battle,  all  the  Lacedaemonian  allies  were  defeated  by 
those  opposed  to  them  ;  but  the  Athenians,  in  consequence 
of  their  phalanx  being  too  deep,  were  surrounded  and  routed 
by  the  Lacedaemonians,  who  then  attacked  other  bodies  of 
the  confederates,  and  drove  them  off  the  field.  They  raised 
a  trophy  on  the  spot,  and  retired  to  Sicyon. 

Meantime  Agesilaus  was  advancing  from  the  Hellespont. 
Dercyllidas  met  him  at  Amphipolis  with  the  news  of  the  late 
victory,  and  he  sent  him  on  with  the  tidings  to  the  cities  of 
Asia  :  he  then  pursued  his  march  through  Macedonia  into 
Thessaly.  As  he  advanced,  he  was  continually  harassed  by 
the  desultory  attacks  of  the  Thessalian  cavalry,  but  near  the 
borders  of  Phthia,  the  cavalry,  which  he  had  himself  raised 
and  formed  in  Asia,  gave  an  effectual  check  to  the  renowned 
Thessalian  horse.  His  march  on  to  Boeotia  now  lay  through 
a  friendly  country;  but  just  as  he  was  entering  it,  he  re- 
ceived tidings  of  the  defeat  of  his  fleet  and  the  death  of 
Peisander.  To  keep  up  the  spirits  of  the  soldiers,  he  gave 
out,  that  though  Peisander  had  fallen,  the  fleet  had  been  vic- 
torious ;  and  he  sacrificed  as  for  a  victory.     In  the  neighbor- 


THE    CORINTHIAN    WAR.  317 

hood  of  Coroneia  he  found  an  army  of  Boeotians,  Argives, 
Corinthians,  Athenians,  Euboeans,  ^Enians,  and  Locrians 
waiting  to  receive  him.  He  had  been  joined  by  the  Pho- 
cians  and  Orchomenians,  by  a  mora  from  Peloponnesus,  and 
half  a  mora  that  had  been  in  garrison  at  Orchomenus.  The 
forces  were  about  equal  on  both  sides.  Agesilaus  advanced 
from  the  Cephissus ;  the  confederates  from  the  foot  of  Hel- 
icon. When  they  were  about  a  stadia  asunder,  the  confed- 
erates shouted,  and  charged  running ;  the  Cyreans,  followed 
by  the  Asiatic  Greeks,  ran  also,  and  drove  back  those  opposed 
to  them :  the  Argives  fled  to  Helicon  before  the  troops  led 
by  Agesilaus  in  person ;  but  the  Thebans  defeated  the  Or- 
chomenians, and  penetrated  to  the  baggage.  Agesilaus  led 
his  phalanx  against  them ;  the  Thebans,  seeing  their  allies 
all  dispersed,  formed  in  a  close  body  in  order  to  force  their 
way  ;  and  Agesilaus,  instead  of  prudently  opening  to  let  them 
pass,  and  assailing  their  flanks  and  rear,  met  them  face  to 
face.  The  contest  was  obstinate  :  at  length  a  part  of  the 
Thebans  were  slain ;  the  rest  forced  their  way  to  Helicon. 
Agesilaus  himself  being  wounded,  Gylis  the  polemarch  by 
his  direction  drew  out  the  troops  next  morning,  and  raised 
a  trophy  to  the  sound  of  flutes,  all  the  soldiers  wearing  gar- 
lands. Their  dead  were  restored  to  the  Thebans,  and  Ages- 
ilaus proceeded  to  Delphi  to  offer  the  tithe  of  his  booty  in 
Asia  (100  talents)  to  the  god.  Gylis  led  the  army  through 
Phocis  into  Ozolian  Locris,  which  country  they  plundered. 
The  Locrians  harassed  them  from  the  hills;  and,  in  an  at- 
tempt to  drive  them  off,  Gylis  himself  was  slain.  Agesilaus 
then  disbanded  his  army,  and  returned  home  over  the  Gulf. 
Sicyon  and  Corinth  being  the  head-quarters  of  the  two 
opposed  armies,  (Ol.  96,  4,)  the  Corinthian  territory  natu- 
rally suffered  much.  The  aristocratic  party  there,  as  the 
richest  proprietors,  were  of  course  the  greatest  sufferers ; 
and,  besides,  their  inclination  was  for  the  Lacedaemonian 
alliance.  The  meetings  which  they  held  for  this  purpose 
did  not  escape  the  democratic  leaders,  and,  with  the  con- 
sent of  their  allies,  they  resolved  to  murder  those  whom 
27* 


xnnYiRsiT 


318  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

they  most  dreaded  and  suspected.  Regardless  of  the  sanc- 
tity of  a  religious  festival,  they  sent  armed  men,  on  the  last 
day  of  the  Eucleiae,  into  the  market,  who  fell  on  and  slew 
all  those  who  had  been  designated.  In  vain  they  fled  to 
the  altars  and  statues  of  the  gods ;  they  were  dragged  from 
them  and  massacred.  Those  thus  slain  were  mostly  men 
in  years;  the  young  men  were  kept  together  at  the  Cranion 
by  Pasimelus,  one  of  their  chiefs,  who  suspected  danger  ; 
and  when  they  heard  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  market, 
they  made  for  the  Aero-Corinth,  and  driving  off  some  Ar- 
gives  and  others  who  attempted  to  stop  them,  took  posses- 
sion of  it.  Here  they  might  have  defended  themselves ;  but 
a  capital  happening  to  fall  from  a  column  without  any  as- 
signable cause,  the  soothsayers,  on  consulting  the  entrails, 
advised  them  to  descend  from  the  fortress.  They  obeyed, 
and  were  about  to  quit  their  country ;  but  their  friends  and 
relatives  entreated  them  to  stay,  and  as  the  democratic 
leaders  swore  that  they  should  receive  no  injury,  a  part  of 
them  returned  to  their  houses. 

A  union,  such  as  we  have  no  other  instance  of  in  Grecian 
history,  had  been  effected  between  Argos  and  Corinth.  The 
boundaries  between  the  two  states  were  removed  and  ef- 
faced ;  the  whole  was  named  Argos,  and  the  same  political 
constitution  prevailed  in  both,  Argos  being,  it  would  appear, 
the  seat  of  government.  This  state  of  things  was  intolerable 
to  the  oligarchs  of  Corinth,  who  found  that,  though  safe  in 
their  persons,  they  had  less  influence  in  their  native  city  than 
even  the  metoecs ;  and  they  resolved  to  make  Corinth  what 
she  had  been,  or  perish  in  the  attempt.  To  recur  to  the 
Lacedaemonians  for  aid  was,  of  course,  their  first  thought; 
and  two  of  them,  Pasimelus  and  Alcimenes,  stole  out  through 
the  bed  of  the  stream  which  passed  through  the  walls,  and 
going  to  Sicyon,  proposed  to  Praxitas,  the  Lacedaemonian 
polemarch  there,  to  put  him  in  possession  of  the  long  walls 
from  Corinth  to  its  port  of  Lechason.  Praxitas,  knowing  he 
might  depend  on  them,  agreed  to  the  proposal.  They  re- 
turned home,  and  on  a  certain  night  opened  a  gate  in  the 


THE    CORINTHIAN    WAR.  319 

walls,  the  custody  of  which  had  been  intrusted  to  them,  and 
admitted  Praxitas  with  his  mora  and  some  Sicyonians,  and 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  Corinthian  exiles.  As  the  walls 
were  far  asunder,  Praxitas  made  a  ditch  and  paling  across, 
that  he  might  be  able  to  hold  out  till  relief  came.  Nothing 
further  was  done  till  the  second  day,  when  the  Argives,  sup- 
ported by  the  Corinthians  and  by  the  troops  of  the  Athe- 
nian Iphicrates,  came  down  upon  them,  relying  on  their 
numbers.  The  Argives  soon  routed  the  Sicyonians,  and 
plucking  up  the  paling,  chased  them  to  the  sea.  The  Spar- 
tan commander  of  the  few  horse  made  his  men  dismount 
and  tie  their  horses  to  trees,  and  then  take  up  the  larger 
shields  of  the  slain  or  fugitive  Sicyonians,  and  advance 
against  the  Argives.  As  these  shields  had  an  S  (Z)  upon 
them,  the  Argives  made  light  of  them.  "  By  the  twin-gods, 
[tu  <rtc6,]  Argives  !  these  SS  will  deceive  you,"  cried  the 
Spartan,  and  charged ;  but  he  and  most  of  his  men  were 
slain. 

The  Corinthian  exiles  drove  those  opposed  to  them  to 
the  town  wall.  The  Lacedaemonians  moved  to  occupy  the 
place  deserted  by  the  Sicyonians ;  and  when  the  Argives 
found  they  were  thus  getting  into  their  rear,  they  made  all 
speed  to  get  outside  of  the  paling.  As  their  right  side, 
which  was  unprotected  by  the  shield,  was  exposed,  many  of 
them  were  slain  as  they  passed,  and  they  were  then  met  by 
the  Corinthian  exiles  returning  from  the  pursuit.  Those 
in  the  town  fearing  to  open  the  gates,  they  had  to  mount  by 
ladders ;  and  so  many  were  slain,  that  they  lay,  says  the 
historian,  like  heaps  of  corn,  stones,  or  timber.  Praxitas 
then  assailed  Lechaeon,  and  slaughtered  its  Boeotian  garri- 
son; and  having  restored  the  enemy's  dead  as  usual,  and 
being  joined  by  troops  of  the  allies,  he  made  a  breach  in  the 
long  walls  sufficient  to  admit  the  passage  of  an  army.  He 
then  advanced  toward  Megara,  and  took  and  garrisoned 
Sidus  and  Crommyon,  near  Corinth,  where  he  also  fortified 
a  place  named  Epieikia.  He  finally  dismissed  his  troops, 
and  returned  to  Sparta. 


320  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

It  is  time  now  that  we  should  take  a  survey  of  the  naval 
operations  at  this  period,  and  of  affairs  on  the  coast  of  Asia. 
For  this  purpose  we  must  go  back  a  little  in  our  narrative. 

When  Conon  fled  with  eight  ships  from  ^Egospotami,  he 
directed  his  course  to  the  Isle  of  Cyprus.  One  of  the  chief 
places  of  this  isle  was  Salamis,  a  colony,  it  was  said,  from 
the  Grecian  island  of  the  same  name.  Between  it  and 
Athens  there  had  been  a  friendship  of  long  standing,  and 
its  present  tyrant,  or  ruler,  Evagoras,  a  man  of  high  char- 
acter and  talent,  was  well  known  to  Conon.  The  able 
Athenian  became  the  chief  adviser  of  the  Cyprian  prince, 
and  he  obtained  him,  by  his  negotiations,  the  favor  and 
friendship  of  Pharnabazus.  As  the  satrap  was  justly  in- 
dignant at  the  manner  in  which  he  had  been  treated  by  the 
Lacedaemonians,  he  lent  a  willing  ear  to  Conon's  suggestion 
of  joining  a  Phoenician  fleet  with  that  of  Evagoras,  and  such 
Grecian  ships  as  Conon  himself  might  be  able  to  collect,  and 
of  attempting  to  destroy  their  power  by  sea ;  and  he  even 
resolved  to  take  the  command  in  person.  The  combined 
fleet,  greatly  superior  in  number,  came  up  with  that  of  Pei- 
sander  off  Cnidos,  (01.  96,  3;)  and  the  allies,  who  were  on 
the  left,  when  they  saw  that  the  Greek  and  Cyprian  ships 
alone  outnumbered  their  whole  fleet,  fled  without  fighting. 
Peisander's  own  ship  was  driven  ashore,  and  he  himself,  re- 
fusing to  quit  it,  was  slain.  The  loss  is  said  to  have  been 
fifty  ships. 

After  this  victory,  Pharnabazus  and  Conon  sailed  round 
to  the  islands  and  cities  of  the  coasts,  expelling  the  harmosts 
and  restoring  the  cities  to  independence  :  the  prudent  and 
generous  satrap  acted  in  all  things  by  the  advice  of  Conon. 
As  his  old  enemy  Dercyllidas  still  remained  at  Abydos, 
Pharnabazus  landed  at  Ephesus  to  collect  an  army  to  lead 
against  it,  and  he  directed  Conon  to  proceed  thither  by  sea. 
Dercyllidas,  however,  had  sufficient  influence  over  the  Aby- 
denes  to  keep  them  from  revolt ;  he  also  induced  the  Ses- 
tians  to  stand  firm ;  and  the  efforts  of  the  satrap  were  with- 
out effect.     As  winter  was  approaching,  he  directed  Conon 


EXPLOIT    OF    IPHICRATES.  321 

to  remain  in  the  Hellespont  and  collect  ships,  for  he  was 
determined  to  retaliate  in  the  spring  on  the  Lacedaemonians 
by  an  invasion  of  Laconia. 

In  the  spring,  (01.  96,  4,)  Pharnabazus  and  Conon  sailed 
across  to  Melos ;  they  then  directed  their  course  to  the 
coast  of  Laconia,  and  landing  at  Pherae  ravaged  the  coun- 
try. They  made  descents  on  various  parts  of  the  coast, 
and  passing  over  to  the  Isle  of  Cythera,  took  Phoenicos,  its 
chief  town,  where  they  left  a  garrison,  with  Nicophemus,  an 
Athenian,  as  governor.  They  thence  proceeded  to  the  Co- 
rinthian Isthmus  ;  and  the  satrap,  having  exhorted  the  allies 
to  carry  on  the  war  with  vigor,  and  prove  themselves  faith- 
ful to  the  King,  gave  them  all  the  money  he  had,  and  sailed 
home  elate  with  the  glory  he  had  acquired. 

Conon  next  represented  to  the  satrap  that  he  could  do 
nothing  more  galling  to  the  Lacedaemonians  than  to  rebuild 
the  Athenian  Long  Walls,  and  thus  undo  all  their  work. 
He  said  that,  if  he  would  allow  him  to  keep  the  fleet,  he 
would  make  the  islands  maintain  it,  and  with  its  aid  raise 
the  Athenian  walls.  Pharnabazus  yielded  a  cheerful  con- 
sent, and  gave  him,  moreover,  a  supply  of  money.  Conon 
sailed  home  without  delay  :  he  employed  masons  and  car- 
penters, and  made  his  crews  assist :  the  allies  came  also 
from  Boeotia  and  elsewhere  to  contribute  their  efforts  toward 
raising  these  bulwarks  of  democracy ;  and  Conon  had  thus 
the  highest  fortune  a  good  citizen  could  desire,  —  that  of 
securing  the  independence  of  his  country.  The  gratitude 
of  the  people  raised  marble  statues  of  him  and  Evagoras, 
beside  that  of  Zeus  the  Preserver. 

Agesilaus,  who  now  (Ol.  97,  1)  conducted  the  war,  led 
his  troops  to  attack  the  Peiraeon,*  where  the  cattle  of  the 
Corinthians  were  sheltered.  He  left  the  Amyclaeans  at 
Lechseon ;  for,  be  they  where  they  might,  it  was  their  prac- 
tice to  return  home  to  celebrate  their  ancient  festival  of  the 
Hyacinthia,  which   was  now  at   hand.     The  polemarch  at 

*  This  place  lay  north  of  the  Isthmus,  under  Mount  Geraneia  on 
the  Corinthian  Gulf. 

o  o 


32*2  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Lechaeon,  leaving  the  allies  to  guard  that  place,  escorted 
the  Amyclaeans  with  a  mora  of  horse  and  another  of  foot 
to  within  twenty  or  thirty  stadia  of  Sicyon.  Thinking  them 
now  safe,  he  left  the  horse  with  them  and  led  back  the 
foot.  But  the  Athenian  commanders,  Callias  and  Iphicrates, 
observing  the  polemarch  returning  without  horse  or  light 
troops,  thought  they  might  venture  to  attack  him  with  the 
peltasts  of  Iphicrates.  Callias,  who  commanded  the  hop- 
lites,  led  them  out,  and  drew  them  up  not  far  from  the 
town;  while  Iphicrates,  with  his  peltasts,  advanced  and 
assailed  the  mora,  flinging  their  darts,  and  then  retreating. 
Many  being  wounded  or  slain,  the  polemarch  ordered 
the  younger  men  to  charge  and  drive  them  off;  but  these, 
with  their  heavy  armor,  could  not  equal  in  speed  the  light 
peltasts,  and  as  they  were  returning  they  were  assailed  in 
flank  and  rear  by  the  active  foes.  The  polemarch  ordered 
the  men  of  more  advanced  age  to  charge ;  but  these  suffered 
still  more  than  their  predecessors.  The  horse  being  now 
returned,  they  and  a  part  of  the  foot  charged  together;  but 
the  horse  not  venturing  to  advance  beyond  the  foot,  both 
suffered  alike.  Wearied  and  exhausted,  the  remains  of  the 
mora  halted  on  an  eminence  two  stadia  from  the  sea,  and 
sixteen  or  seventeen  from  Lechaeon.  Their  comrades  at  this 
place  got  into  boats,  but  could  not  aid  them;  and  when 
they  saw  the  Athenian  hoplites  advancing,  they  took  to  flight. 
The  horse  and  a  few  only  of  the  foot  escaped  to  Lechaeon. 
The  partial  historian  gives  the  loss  at  two  hundred  and  fifty 
men  ;  but  as  he  says  that  the  mora,  was  six  hundred,  it  was 
probably  far  greater.  This  exploit  of  Iphicrates  and  his  pel- 
tasts, whom  he  had  armed  and  disciplined  after  a  system  of 
his  own,  was  long  the  theme  of  Athenian  exultation. 

Agesilaus  having  led  home  his  troops,  Iphicrates  attacked 
and  reduced  Sidus  and  the  other  garrisons  of  the  Lace- 
daemonians, who  now  only  retained  Lechaeon. 

Next  year,  (Ol.  97,  2,)  Agesilaus  led  an  army  into  Acar- 
nania;  for  the  Achaeans,  who  now  held  Calydon,  being  hard 
pressed  by  the  Acarnanians,  had  sent  to  Sparta,  threatening 


THE    CORINTHIAN    WAR.  323 

to  renounce  the  alliance  if  they  were  not  assisted.  He  ad- 
vanced into  Acarnania  by  short  marches  of  only  ten  or 
twelve  stadia  a  day ;  the  Acarnanians,  deceived  by  the 
slowness  of  his  movements,  brought  their  cattle  and  slaves 
down  from  the  mountains,  whither  they  had  sent  them,  and 
began  to  till  their  lands  as  usual.  But  Agesilaus,  making 
a  sudden  march  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  stadia  in  one  day, 
came  to  the  lake  about  which  most  of  the  cattle  were  feed- 
ing, and  seized  the  whole  of  them.  He  then  retreated 
through  iEtolia ;  and  returning  the  following  spring,  forced 
the  Acarnanians  to  embrace  the  alliance  of  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians, instead  of  that  of  the  Boeotians  and  Athenians. 

The  Lacedaemonians,  feeling  the  effects  of  the  enmity  of 
Pharnabazus,  resolved  to  endeavor  to  gain  Tiribazus,  the 
new  satrap  of  Lydia.  Antalcidas,  a  second  Lysander,  ap- 
peared on  their  part  at  Sardes,  whither  the  Athenians  and 
their  allies,  without  loss  of  time,  despatched  Conon  and  others 
to  attend  to  their  interests.  Antalcidas  proposed,  as  the 
basis  of  a  peace,  that  all  the  Grecian  cities  and  islands 
should  be  independent.  The  Athenians  saw  that  they  should 
lose  Lemnos,  Imbros,  and  Scyros ;  the  Thebans  would  not 
part  with  their  hegemony  over  the  Boeotian  towns  ;  and  Ar- 
gos  was  unwilling  to  separate  from  Corinth.  Nothing  there- 
fore could  be  arranged.  The  satrap  was  strongly  inclined 
to  the  Lacedaemonians  ;  but  fearing  to  aid  them  openly,  he 
gave  Antalcidas  money  in  secret  to  equip  a  fleet ;  he  cast 
Conon  into  prison  as  an  enemy  to  the  King  ;  and  then  set 
out  for  Susa,  to  learn  the  will  of  the  monarch. 

On  his  arrival  at  court,  Struthas  was  sent  down  to  take 
charge  of  his  province.  This  satrap  pursued  a  different  pol- 
icy, for  he  took  the  Athenian  side  so  openly  that  the  Lace- 
daemonians sent  Thimbron  to  invade  his  satrapy.  Thimbron 
entered  and  ravaged  the  plain  of  the  Meander;  but  conduct- 
ing himself  with  his  usual  negligence,  he  was  surprised  and 
slain,  and  his  troops  defeated.  Diphridas  was  sent  out  to 
succeed  him,  and  as  he  was  a  man  of  capacity  and  of  an 
amiable  temper,  he  better  sustained  the  credit  of  the  Lace- 
daemonian name. 


324  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

The  people  and  the  aristocrats  in  Rhodes  being  at  feud 
at  this  time,  the  latter  sent  to  Lacedsemon  for  aid.  Teleutas, 
the  brother  of  Agesilaus,  came  with  twenty-seven  ships  to 
support  the  oligarchic  interest :  the  Athenians  sent  out 
Thrasybulus  with  forty  ships  to  keep  down  the  naval  power 
of  the  Lacedaemonians.  Knowing  that  the  people  in  Rhodes 
were  well  able  to  defend  themselves,  Thrasybulus  directed 
his  course  to  the  Hellespont.  Here  he  reconciled  two 
Thracian  princes  who  were  at  enmity,  and  made  them  allies 
of  Athens.  The  towns  on  both  coasts  returned  to  the 
Athenian  connection.  At  Byzantion  he  farmed  out  the  toll 
of  ten  per  cent,  charged  on  vessels  from  the  Pontus,  and 
established  there  a  democracy.  He  then  sailed  to  Lesbos, 
where  the  Mytilenaeans  adhered  to  Athens.  He  landed  a 
part  of  his  troops,  and  joining  them  with  the  Mytilenaeans 
and  the  exiles  from  the  other  towns,  advanced  against 
Methymna.  The  Spartan  harmost  led  out  what  troops  he 
had ;  but  he  was  defeated  and  slain.  Thrasybulus,  having 
reduced  the  greater  part  of  the  island,  sailed  for  Rhodes. 
On  his  way  he  collected  money  from  the  towns  ;  and  having 
entered  the  Eurymedon,  near  Aspendos,  for  this  purpose,  the 
Aspendians,  incensed  at  some  plunder  committed  by  his 
soldiers,  fell  on  his  camp  in  the  night,  and  he  was  slain  in 
his  tent. 

Such  was  the  end  of  this  excellent  citizen  and  truly 
great  man.  Conon,  the  other  restorer  of  Athens,  probably 
died  also  about  this  time.  We  hear  nothing  of  him  after  his 
imprisonment;  but  it  seems  likely  that  Struthas  gave  him 
his  liberty,  and  that  he  died  at  Cyprus. 

Dercyllidas  was  now  (OL'97,  4)  superseded  in  his  com- 
mand at  Abydos  byAnaxibius,  who  had  more  influence  with 
the  Ephors  than  he  had,  and  promised  to  destroy  the  Athe- 
nian power  in  the  Hellespont.  To  oppose  him,  Iphicrates 
was  sent  out  with  a  body  of  his  peltasts ;  and  he  speedily 
drew  the  boastful  Spartan  into  an  ambuscade,  where  he  and 
most  of  his  men  were  slain. 

Hitherto  the  friendly  intercourse  between  Athens  and 
iEgina  had  not  been  interrupted  ;  but  now  the  Spartan  gov- 


THE    CORINTHIAN    WAR.  325 

ernment  gave  permission  to  the  ^Eginetes  to  privateer  on 
the  coast  of  Attica.  The  Athenians  sent  a  force  which  fixed 
itself  in  JEgina;  but  they  were  obliged  to  withdraw  it  five 
months  afterwards.  As  the  Attic  coast  still  suffered,  Cha- 
brias,  who  was  sailing  with  a  force  of  eight  hundred  peltasts 
and  ten  triremes  to  the  aid  of  Evagoras  of  Cyprus,  was 
directed  to  make  on  his  way  an  attempt  on  ^Egina.  This 
able  officer  landed  in  the  night,  and  placed  his  peltasts  in 
ambush.  The  Spartan  harmost  led  forth  what  troops  he 
could  collect,  when  he  heard  that  the  Athenians  were  in  the 
island;  but  he  fell  into  the  ambuscade,  and  he  himself  and 
a  great  number  of  his  men  were  slain. 

The  Athenians  for  some  time  navigated  the  gulf  in  secu- 
rity ;  for  Eteonicus,  who  commanded  the  fleet  at  ^Egina,  not 
having  money  to  pay  his  crews,  they  would  not  embark.  But 
when  Teleutias,  the  brother  of  Agesilaus,  came  and  took  the 
command,  his  influence  over  the  soldiers  and  sailors  was  such 
that  they  at  once  declared  they  would  go  whithersoever  he 
would  lead  them.  Taking  advantage  of  their  ardor,  he  filled 
twelve  triremes  in  the  evening,  and  crossed  over  to  the  Pi- 
rseeus  in  the  night.  At  daybreak  he  boldly  entered  the  har- 
bor, where  twenty  triremes  were  lying.  As  he  had  an- 
ticipated, the  captains  and  crews  were  all  ashore :  he  seized 
several  merchantmen,  and  towed  them  out;  the  alarm  spread 
to  the  city  :  horse  and  foot  came  down,  as  if  the  Piraeeus 
had  been  taken ;  but  the  enemy  was  gone.  He  sent  his 
prizes  to  ^Egina,  and  then  sailed  along  the  coast  to  Sunion, 
capturing  the  fishing-boats  and  vessels  coming  from  the 
islands  with  passengers.  At  Sunion  he  took  some  ships, 
laden  with  corn  and  other  commodities,  and  returning  to 
^Egina,  sold  his  booty,  and  gave  a  month's  pay  in  advance  to 
his  men.  He  thus  continued  to  injure  the  Athenian  trade, 
and  by  this  means  kept  his  crews  well  paid  and  contented. 

The  Lacedaemonians  (Ol.  98,  1)  had  sent  out  Antalcidas 

as  admiral  to  the  coast  of  Asia.     On  his  arrival  at  Ephesus, 

he  sent  his  vice-admiral,  Nicolochus,  with  the  fleet,  to  assist 

the  Abydenes,  and  he  himself  repaired  to  Tiribazus,  who 

28 


326  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

was  returned  from  court.  Matters  were  speedily  arranged 
at  Sardes,  for  the  satrap  was  empowered  to  aid  the  Lace- 
daemonians, if  the  Athenians  and  their  allies  refused  peace 
on  the  terms  which  had  been  proposed.  When  Antalcidas 
came  down  to  the  coast,  he  heard  that  Nicolocfyus  was  blocked 
up  in  Abydos  by  Iphicrates  and  Diotimus,  the  Athenian  com- 
manders. He  set  out  over  land  for  Abydos,  resumed  the 
command,  got  out  of  the  port  by  night,  and  being  shortly 
afterwards  joined  by  twenty  ships  from  Sicily,  by  others 
from  Ionia,  and  by  some  from  ^Eolis,  where  Ariobarzanes 
now  governed  in  place  of  Pharnabazus,  who  was  gone  to 
court  to  espouse  the  King's  daughter,  he  had  a  fleet  of  up- 
wards of  eighty  ships,  which  gave  him  the  full  command  of 
the  seas. 

Various  causes  making  all  parties  desirous  of  peace,  they 
sent  (Ol.  98,  2)  their  deputies  to  the  satrap  to  learn  the 
King's  will.  It  was  as  follows  :  "  Artaxerxes  the  King  thinks 
it  just  that  the  cities  in  Asia  should  be  his,  and  the  islands 
Clazomena?  and  Cyprus;  but  that  the  other  Grecian  cities, 
great  and  small,  should  be  independent,  except  Lemnos,  Im- 
bros,  and  Scyros,  which  should,  as  of  old,  belong  to  the  Athe- 
nians. On  those  who  do  not  accept  this  peace  I  will  make 
war  with  those  who  do,  by  land  and  by  sea,  with  ships  and 
with  money."  These  terms  were  brought  home  by  the  dep- 
uties to  their  respective  cities,  and  they  were  sworn  to  by 
all.  The  Thebans  wanted  to  swear  in  the  name  of  the  Boeo- 
tians ;  but  Agesilaus  insisted  on  their  acknowledging  the  in- 
dependence of  all  the  Ba30tian  towns,  and  on  their  demur- 
ring, he  prepared  to  march  an  army  against  them  :  they  were 
then  forced  to  submit.  The  Argives  in  like  manner  were 
obliged  to  withdraw  their  garrison  from  Corinth. 

Such  was  the  celebrated  Peace  of  Antalcidas,  which  con- 
cluded the  Corinthian  war.  By  it  all  the  advantages  she  had 
contended  for  were  secured  to  Laccdaemon.  Argos  and  Cor- 
inth were  again  separated,  Thebes  reduced  to  her  own  sin- 
gle power,  Athens  deprived  of  her  supremacy  over  the  Asiatic 
Greeks ;  while  Lacedaemdn,  possessed  of  more  territory  and 


REDUCTION    OF    MANTINEIA.  327 

population  than  any  of  them,  was  in  a  condition  to  lord  it 
over  the  whole.  There  appeared  to  be  something  ungene- 
rous in  abandoning  their  Asiatic  brethren  to  the  dominion 
of  the  Barbarians,  but  we  hear  not  that  they  complained; 
and  perhaps  their  condition  was  altogether  as  good,  if  not 
better,  under  the  yoke  of  Persia,  where  they  only  paid  the. 
tribute  which  had  been  laid  on  by  the  moderate  and  equi- 
table Darius  I.,*  as  it  had  been  or  could  be  under  that  of 
Athens  or  Lacedaemon.  There  was  also  thought  to  be  a 
loss  of  national  honor  in  thus  virtually  acknowledging  the 
Persian  monarch's  supremacy  over  Greece ;  yet  it  might 
have  saved  Greece  much  bloodshed  if  a  supremacy  of  that 
kind  had  been  really  established.t 


CHAPTER  XIII.  | 

REDUCTION    OF    MANTINEIA. SEIZURE    OF    THE    CADMEIA. 

OLYNTHIAN     WAR. REDUCTION     OF     PHLIUS. RECOVERY 

OF     THE     CADMEIA. SECOND     BOEOTIAN      WAR. BATTLE 

OF    LEUCTRA. 

The  Lacedaemonians,  assuming  the  office  of  executors  of 
this  peace,  behaved  with  their  usual  haughtiness  and  regard 
to  their  own  interests  alone.  They  first  proposed  to  punish 
such  of  their  allies  as  had  leaned  toward  their  enemies  in  the 
late  war.  As  the  Mantineans  had  sent  corn  to  the  Argives 
and  otherwise  incurred  their  displeasure,  they  issued  orders 
to  them  to  pull  down  their  walls.  On  their  refusal,  King 
Agesipolis  led  (Ol.  98,  4)  an  army  into  their  territory,  and 

*  See  above,  p.  89,  note. 

t  Isocrates  (Panegyr.  Panathen.  254)  speaks  of  this  peace  as  being 
highly  disgraceful  to  Sparta. 

X  Xen.  v.  2,  to  the  end;  vi.  1 — 4.  Diodor.  xv.  19 — 56.  Plut.,  Agesi- 
laus  and  Pelopidas. 


328  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

ravaged  it ;  he  then  ran  a  ditch  and  wall  round  the  town ;  but 
finding  that,  being  well  supplied  with  corn,  it  was  likely  to 
hold  out  long,  he  dammed  up  the  stream  which  ran  through 
it  below  the  walls.  By  this  means  the  town  was  flooded,  and 
the  sun-dried  bricks,  of  which  the  houses  and  walls  were 
built,  being  dissolved,  and  the  walls  ready  to  fall,  a  surrender 
was  proposed.  They  were  forced  to  throw  down  their  walls, 
and  to  separate  into  the  four  open  villages  of  which  Mantineia 
had  originally  consisted.  At  first,  says  the  historian,  the 
people  of  substance  were  annoyed  at  having  to  pull  down 
their  houses  and  build  new  ones ;  but  when  they  felt  the 
advantages  of  residing  near  their  estates,  and  found  them- 
selves delivered  of  the  pestilent  demagogues,  and  the  govern- 
ment in  their  own  hands,  they  became  well  content.  The 
Lacedaemonians  next  made  the  Phliasians  readmit  their  ex- 
iles, whose  property  was  given  back  to  them,  and  those  who 
had  purchased  it  indemnified  out  of  the  public  revenue. 

An  embassy  came  about  this  time  to  Sparta  from  Acan- 
thus and  Apollonia  in  Chalcidice,  beseeching  aid  against 
the  Olynthians.  For  the  Olynthians,  wealthy  and  powerful 
through  commerce,  had  formed  the  plan  of  a  federation 
among  the  cities  of  Chalcidice  and  its  vicinity,  using  the  same 
laws  and  having  one  government.  Some  cities  had  volun- 
tarily, others  forcibly,  entered  into  it.  Pella  and  some  other 
places  in  Macedonia  joined  it;  there  were  ambassadors  from 
Thebes  and  Athens  at  Olynthus;  the  Olynthians  would  soon 
have  the  gold  mines  of  Pangseus ;  they  had  plenty  of  timber 
for  ship-building ;  they  could  hire  abundance  of  light  troops 
among  the  Thracians :  it  therefore,  said  the  envoys,  behoved 
the  Lacedaemonians  to  check  this  federation  in  time. 

These  representations  had  such  weight  in  the  assembly  of 
the  Lacedaemonians  and  their  allies,  that  it  was  voted  at  once 
to  send  an  army  of  ten  thousand  men  to  Olynthus.  Any 
state  might  give  money  instead  of  men,  at  the  rate  of  three 
oboles  iEginetan  a  man :  if  any  did  not  give  men  or  money, 
the  Lacedaemonians  were  authorized  to  find  them  a  stater  a 
day  for  each  man.     As  it  would  take  some  time,  however, 


SEIZURE    OF    THE    CADMEIA.  329 

to  collect  so  large  a  force,  the  envoys  suggested  that  a  Spar- 
tan officer  should  be  sent  off  immediately  with  such  troops 
as  were  at  hand,  for  his  appearance  would  confirm  the  wa- 
vering, and  damp  the  ardor  of  the  hasty.  This  advice 
seeming  good,  Eudamidas  was  despatched  with  about  two 
thousand  Neodamodes,  Scirites,  and  Perioecians.  On  his 
departure  he  begged  the  Ephors  to  send  the  rest  of  the 
Lacedaemonian  troops  to  him  under  his  brother  Phcebidas. 
When  he  arrived  in  Thrace  he  placed  garrisons  in  some 
of  the  towns,  and  made  Potidsea  his  head-quarters.  (Ol. 
99,  3.) 

Phcebidas  set  out  soon  after,  and  coming  to  Thebes,  en- 
camped without  the  town.  The  two  Theban  polemarchs, 
Ismenias  and  Leontiadas,  being  of  opposite  parties,  the  for- 
mer, who  was  of  that  adverse  to  Sparta,  took  no  notice  of 
Phcebidas.  Leontiadas,  on  the  contrary,  paid  him  great 
court,  and  when  they  became  intimate  he  proposed  to  put 
the  Cadmeia  or  Acropolis  into  his  hands,  and  thus  place 
Thebes  at  the  mercy  of  Sparta.  Phcebidas,  ambitious  of 
distinction,  yielded  a  ready  assent ;  and  in  the  middle  of  a 
sultry  day,  when  the  senate  was  sitting  in  a  portico  in  the 
market,  as  the  women  were  celebrating  the  Thesmophoria 
in  the  Cadmeia,  and  the  streets  were  mostly  empty,  Leon- 
tiadas mounted  his  horse,  rode  out,  and  bringing  in  Phce- 
bidas and  his  troops,  led  them  to  the  Cadmeia,  and  gave  it 
up  to  them.  He  then  went  to  the  senate,  and  being  sup- 
ported by  his  faction,  seized  Ismenias,  and  took  him  away  to 
the  Cadmeia.  About  four  hundred  of  Ismenias'  friends  left 
the  city,  and  retired  to  Athens.  A  new  polemarch  was 
chosen  in  his  place  from  the  opposite  party.  Leontiadas 
then  proceeded  to  Sparta,  where  he  found  great  real  or 
pretended  indignation  against  Phcebidas  for  having  acted 
without  orders.  Agesilaus  said,  that  if  what  he  had  done 
was  injurious  to  Sparta,  he  ought  to  be  punished  ;  but  if 
advantageous,  the  old  law  authorized  a  commander  to  act 
of  himself:  it  remained  only  to  be  inquired  whether  what 
he  had  done  was  advantageous  or  otherwise.  Leontiadas 
28*  pp 


330  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

easily  showed  that  it  was  for  the  interest  of  Sparta  to  hold 
the  Cadmeia.  For  the  sake  of  appearance,  a  fine  was  im- 
posed on  Phcebidas.  Commissioners,  three  from  Sparta  and 
one  from  each  of  the  allies,  were  sent  to  try  Ismenias,  for 
taking  money  from  the  King,  and  being  the  cause  of  discord 
in  Greece.  He  was,  of  course,  found  guilty,  and  executed ; 
the  government  was  committed  to  Leontiadas  and  his  party, 
and  a  Spartan  harmost  sent  to  command  in  the  Acropolis. 

After  this  piece  of  treachery,  to  which  the  history  of  the 
Athenians  affords  no  parallel,  the  Lacedaemonians  proceeded 
in  their  task  of  reducing  the  Olynthian  confederacy.  The 
command  was  given  to  Teleutias ;  the  allies  sent  their  con- 
tingents, and  he  marched  for  Thrace.  He  sent  to  advise 
Amyntas  of  Macedonia,  to  hire  troops  and  form  alliances,  if 
he  would  recover  his  dominions ;  he  also  sent  to  Derdas, 
prince  of  Elimia,  to  remind  him  that  the  Olynthians,  if  not 
checked  in  time,  would  treat  his  kingdom  like  Macedonia. 
Having  assembled  his  forces  at  Potidasa,  he  entered  the 
Olynthian  territory.  An  indecisive  action  was  fought  under 
the  walls  of  Olynthus,  in  which  a  body  of  horse,  commanded 
by  Derdas  in  person,  greatly  distinguished  itself.  Teleutias 
then  retired,  and  dismissed  his  Macedonian  and  Elimian 
allies  for  the  winter. 

In  the  spring,  (01.  99,  4,)  Teleutias  again  advanced  to 
Olynthus.  A  smart  skirmish  between  his  peltasts  and  the 
Olynthian  horse  brought  on  a  general  engagement,  in  which 
Teleutias  himself  was  slain,  and  his  army  defeated  with  con- 
siderable loss.  When  the  news  of  this  reverse  reached 
Lacedaemon,  King  Agesipolis  was  ordered  to  go  and  take  the 
command.  He  was  attended,  asAgesilaus  had  been  in  Asia, 
by  thirty  Spartans :  many  Pericecians  and  others  cheerfully 
went  with  him,  and  volunteers  came  from  the  allied  states. 
Thessalian  horsemen,  ambitious  of  his  acquaintance,  joined 
him  on  his  march,  and  Amyntas  and  Derdas  showed  more 
zeal  than  ever. 

Without  loss  of  time  he  advanced  (Ol.  100,  1)  to  Olyn- 
thus, and  offered  battle,  which  was  refused.     He  then  de- 


REDUCTION    OF    PHLIUS.  331 

stroyed  the  standing  corn,  and  besieged  and  took  the  town 
of  Torone.  But,  owing  to  the  extreme  heat  of  the  weather, 
he  was  seized  with  a  violent  fever  :  the  shady  bowers  and 
cool  and  limpid  waters,  which  he  had  a  short  time  before  seen 
at  the  temple  of  Bacchus  at  Aphytes,  came  strong  on  his 
imagination,  and  he  requested  to  be  carried  thither.  His  de- 
sire was  complied  with,  and  he  died  amidst  those  shades,  on 
the  seventh  day  of  his  illness.  His  body  was,  according  to 
usage,  put  in  honey,  and  conveyed  to  Sparta  for  interment 
with  those  of  his  fathers.  In  his  room,  Polybiadas  came  out 
as  harmost.  He  invested  Olynthus  so  closely,  by  land  and 
by  sea,  that  the  people  were  obliged  to  crave  permission  to 
send  deputies  to  Sparta  to  sue  for  peace.  Peace  was  granted, 
on  condition  of  their  becoming  the  allies,  offensive  and  de- 
fensive, of  the  Lacedaemonians;  and  thus  theOlynthian  con- 
federation, which  had  promised  so  well,  was  broken  up. 
(01.  100,  2.) 

Agesilaus  had  meantime  been  besieging  Phlius;  for  the 
exiles,  finding  they  could  not  obtain  justice  against  the  per- 
sons who  held  their  property,  had  gone  to  Lacedaemon  to 
complain.  The  party  at  home,  knowing  that  the  Spartans 
never  sent  both  of  their  kings  out  of  the  country  at  the  same 
time,  and  therefore  fearing  no  hostility,  passed  a  decree 
•fining  all  who  went  unsent  to  Lacedaemon.  They  were, 
however,  mistaken,  for  the  Ephors  directed  Agesilaus  to  lead 
an  army  against  Phlius.  When  he  was  on  the  frontiers,  they 
sent,  tendering  money,  and  offering  to  do  any  thing  he 
desired,  if  he  would  not  advance.  He  required  them  to 
deliver  up  their  Acropolis,  and  on  their  refusal  advanced  and 
circumvallated  the  town.  As  he  had  exact  information  of 
the  quantity  of  corn  in  it,  he  had  calculated  on  its  reduction 
by  famine  against  a  certain  time ;  but  nearly  double  the  period 
was  past,  and  there  were  no  symptoms  of  surrender.  For 
a  decree  had  been  made  to  consume  daily  but  half  the  usual 
quantity  of  food  ;  and  a  man  named  Delphion,  of  a  daring 
and  energetic  character,  and  supported  by  a  band  of  three 
hundred  chosen  men,  had  taken  the  chief  command.     He 


332  HISTORY    OF    CREECE. 

would  not  permit  any  one  even  to  speak  of  peace ;  he  forced 
all  to  mount  guard  in  turn,  and  he  constantly  made  sorties 
against  the  besiegers.  At  length  it  was  reported  to  Delphion 
that  no  more  food  remained;  he  then  gave  permission  to 
treat,  and  time  for  deputies  to  repair  to  Sparta  was  requested. 
Though  indignant  at  the  slight  thus  put  on  him,  Agesilaus 
granted  it ;  but  he  directed  his  friends  at  home  to  have  all 
things  left  to  him.  He  watched  the  town  more  closely  than 
ever,  that  none  might  escape;  but,  in  spite  of  his  vigilance, 
the  brave  Delphion  and  a  faithful  slave  contrived  to  get  off  in 
the  night.  A  court  of  one  hundred  Phliasians,  fifty  of  each 
party,  was  appointed  to  decide  who  should  be  put  to  death 
and  who  not,  and  then  to  form  a  constitution.  Meantime  a 
garrison,  to  be  fed  and  paid  by  the  Phliasians,  was  left  in 
the  town.  The  siege  had  lasted  a  year  and  eight  months. 
(Ol.  100,  2.) 

The  Lacedaemonian  power  was  now  at  its  height,  and  ap- 
parently so  secure  that  nothing  could  shake  it,  when  a  rev- 
olution took  place,  which  Xenophon,  with  all  his  partiality, 
can  only  explain  by  an  interference  of  the  gods  to  punish 
perfidy  and  injustice.  Seven  men,  he  declares,  delivered 
Thebes  from  the  Lacedaemonians  ! 

Phyllidas,  the  secretary  to  Archias,  one  of  the  Theban 
polemarchs,  having  occasion  to  go  to  Athens,  met  there  Mel- 
lon, one  of  the  exiles,  with  whom  he  was  acquainted.  He 
did  not  conceal  his  dissatisfaction  at  the  state  of  things  at 
home.  The  mode  of  revolution  was  arranged  between  them  ; 
and  some  time  after,  Mellon,  taking  with  him  six  of  the  best 
adapted  of  the  exiles,  armed  only  with  daggers,  entered  the 
Theban  territory  by  night.  They  spent  the  day  in  a  by- 
place,  and  in  the  evening  went  in  at  the  gates  along  with 
those  who  were  returning  from  their  daily  labors  in  the 
fields.  That  night  and  the  following  day  they  staid  at  the 
house  of  a  man  named  Charon. 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  polemarchs  to  celebrate  the  festi- 
val of  the  Aphrodisia  previous  to  their  going  out  of  office. 
They  were  both  men  of  pleasure ;  and  Phyllidas,  who  had 


RECOVERY    OF    THE    CADMEIA.  333 

long  promised  to  procure  them  the  society  of  some  of  the 
finest  women  in  Thebes,  assured  them  that  he  would  now 
perform  his  promise.  When  they  had  supped  and  drunk 
plentifully,  they  urged  him  to  keep  his  engagement.  He 
went  out  and  brought  three  of  Mellon' s  comrades  dressed  as 
mistresses,  and  three  as  their  maids,  into  an  inner  room.  He 
then  told  Archias  that  the  ladies  would  not  come  in  if  any 
of  the  attendants  remained,  These  were  ordered  away, 
and  Phyllidas  gave  them  wine  to  take  with  them.  He  now 
led  in  the  supposed  ladies,  one  of  whom  sat  down  beside 
each.  At  the  appointed  signal,  (that  of  removing  their  veils,) 
they  drew  their  daggers  and  slew  the  two  polemarchs. 

Taking  then  three  of  them  with  him,  Phyllidas  proceeded 
to  the  house  of  Leontiadas.  He  knocked  at  the  door,  and 
saying  he  was  sent  by  the  polemarchs,  was  admitted  to  the 
room  where  he  was  sitting  after  supper,  his  wife  spinning 
at  his  side.  They  slew  him,  and  with  threats  of  death  im- 
posed silence  on  his  wife  ;  then  went  away,  ordering  the 
door  to  be  shut,  and  vowing  to  return  and  put  to  death 
every  one  in  the  house  if  it  should  be  opened.  Phyllidas 
then  proceeded  with  two  of  them  to  the  prison,  and  called 
to  the  keeper  that  he  had  brought  a  prisoner.  He  opened 
the  door;  they  slew  him,  and  released  the  prisoners;  and 
giving  them  arms  out  of  the  portico,  stationed  them  in  the 
Ampheion.  Proclamation  was  then  made  for  the  citizens, 
both  horsemen  and  hoplites,  to  come  forth,  as  the  tyrants 
were  dead.  None,  however,  ventured  out  during  the  night, 
but  with  day  all  appeared  in  arms.  Some  of  the  horsemen 
were  then  sent  to  the  frontiers  of  Attica  to  tell  of  their  suc- 
cess to  their  friends  there.  The  harmost  in  the  Cadmeia, 
when  he  heard  the  proclamation  in  the  night,  sent  off  to 
Platoea  *  and  Thespine  for  aid.  The  Plataeans,  who  were 
coming,  were  fallen  on  by  the  Theban  horse,  and  twenty  of 
them  slain;  and  the  Athenians  being  now  arrived,  the  Cad- 
meia was  invested.     Seeing  their  vigor  and  determination, 

*  The  Plataeans  had  been  restored  after  the  peace  of  Antalcidas. 


334  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

and  having  but  few  men  with  him,  the  harmost  offered  to 
surrender  if  the  garrison  were  allowed  to  retire  with  their 
arms.  These  terms  were  accepted  and  sworn  to ;  but  such 
of  the  Thebans  as  were  among  them  were  dragged  out  and 
slain ;  some  of  them,  however,  were  secreted,  and  saved  by 
the  Athenians.  The  Thebans,  to  their  disgrace,  slew  even 
the  children  of  those  whom  they  had  thus  put  to  death. 

Such  was  the  Theban  revolution,  which,  though  not  equal 
in  moral  purity  to  that  of  Athens,  with  which  it  was  com- 
pared, was  doubtless  a  glorious  event.  It  is  not,  however, 
necessary  to  call,  with  Xenophon,  the  gods  to  aid  in  ex- 
plaining it.  It  is  evident  from  the  preceding  narrative  that 
the  oligarchs  had  but  few  adherents ;  when  therefore  they 
were  slain,  there  only  remained  the  foreign  garrison  in  the 
Cadmeia ;  and  fortunately  for  Thebes  it  was  composed  of 
the  allies,  not  of  the  Lacedaemonians,  and  the  harmost  was 
not  a  man  of  vigor  and  determination.  If  he  had  held  out 
for  a  few  days,  things  might  have  taken  a  different  turn. 

The  harmost  was  put  to  death  on  his  return  to  Lacedae- 
raon  ;  and,  though  it  was  now  the  depth  of  winter,  an  army 
was  sent  against  the  Thebans.  As  Agesilaus,  pleading  his 
advanced  age,  declined  the  command,  it  was  given  to  the 
young  King  Cleombrotus  of  the  other  house.  (Ol.  100,  3.) 
At  the  Isthmus,  learning  that  the  easier  road  by  Eleutherae 
was  guarded  by  the  Athenian  general  Chabrias,  with  a 
body  of  peltasts,  he  took  that  of  Plataea.  His  peltasts  met 
on  the  heights  the  Thebans  who  had  been  freed  from  prison 
by  Phyllidas,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  number,  and 
killed  them  all  but  a  few.  From  Plataea  he  went  to  Thespiae. 
Having  encamped  for  sixteen  days  at  Cynoscephalae,  in  the 
Theban  territory,  he  returned  to  Thespiae  ;  and  leaving  there 
Sphodrias  as  harmost,  with  a  third  of  his  troops,  and  all  the 
money  he  had  with  him,  and  directing  him  to  hire  merce- 
naries, he  led  his  army  home. 

The  Athenians,  seeing  every  prospect  of  a  new  war,  of 
which  Bceotia,  not  Corinth,  would  be  the  seat,  grew  terri- 
fied ;  and  in  their  fears  were  led,  probably  by  the  friends 


THE    SECOND    BffiOTIAN    WAR.  335 

of  oligarchy,  to  condemn  to  death  the  two  generals  who 
had  aided  the  Theban  revolution.  One  was  actually  exe- 
cuted ;  sentence  of  exile  was  passed  on  the  other,  who  had 
escaped. 

But  the  Thebans  were  resolved  that,  if  possible,  the  Athe- 
nians should  share  in  the  war.  They  bribed  (at  least  so  it 
was  suspected)  Sphodrias  to  make  a  sudden  march,  and  try 
to  seize  the  Piraeeus,  which  had  as  yet  no  gates  :  perhaps  it 
was  only  the  facility  of  the  design  that  was  suggested  to  him  : 
at  all  events  he  set  out  from  Thespiae  early  one  day,  ex- 
pecting to  reach  the  Pirseeus  before  daylight  next  morning. 
Day,  however,  broke  on  him  at  Thria,  near  Eleusis  :  he 
turned  back,  and,  instead  of  trying  to  conceal  his  intentions, 
robbed  the  houses  and  drove  off  the  cattle.  When  the  news 
reached  Athens,  all  took  arms  to  defend  the  city.  Three 
ambassadors  from  Lacedaemon,  who  happened  to  be  present, 
were  taken  into  custody;  but  they  made  it  so  clear  that 
they  could  have  known  nothing  of  the  design  of  Sphodrias, 
who,  they  averred,  would  be  punished  for  it  by  the  govern- 
ment, that  they  were  at  once  set  at  liberty.  Sphodrias  was 
certainly  capitally  prosecuted ;  but,  strange  to  say,  the  in- 
terest of  Agesilaus,  influenced  by  his  son,  the  friend  of  the 
son  of  Sphodrias,  was  exerted  in  his  favor,  and  he  was 
acquitted.  This  impolitic  weakness  and  injustice  had  its 
reward  :  the  Boeotian  party  convinced  the  Athenian  people 
that  the  design  on  the  Piraeeus  was  of  a  piece  with  the  sei- 
zure of  the  Cadmeia ;  ships  were  built,  gates  put  up  at  the 
Piraeeus,  and  heart  and  hand  it  was  resolved  to  stand  by  the 
Thebans. 

As  Agesilaus  had  been  in  a  great  measure  the  cause  of 
involving  his  country  in  a  war  with  Boeotia  and  Athens, 
he  could  not,  without  shame,  refuse  it  the  benefit  of  his 
military  experience  and  talents.  He  accepted,  therefore, 
the  command  of  the  army  destined  for  Bceotia ;  and  know- 
ing that  unless  he  occupied  Cithaeron  he  should  find  it  dif- 
ficult to  enter  it,  he  looked  about  for  troops  fit  for  that 
purpose.     Just  at  this  time  the  Orchomenians  and  Cleito- 


336  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

rians  in  Arcadia  were  engaged  in  one  of  those  petty  wars 
which  were  evermore  going  on  among  the  numerous  inde- 
pendent states  of  Greece,  and  the  latter  had  taken  a  body 
of  mercenaries  into  their  party.  He  arranged  with  the  Clei- 
torians  to  let  him  have  the  use  of  these  troops ;  and  having 
sent  orders  to  the  Orchomenians  to  suspend  hostilities,  he 
despatched  them  to  occupy  Cithaeron.  He  thus  reached 
Thespiae  in  safety :  but  he  found  the  plain  of  Thebes  and  the 
most  valuable  parts  of  the  country  secured  by  a  circular 
ditch  and  rampart,  which  he  could  not  penetrate ;  and  as 
he  led  away  his  troops,  the  Theban  horse  used  to  sally  out 
and  fall  on  them.  Observing  that  the  enemy  did  not 
usually  appear  till  after  breakfast-time,  Agesilaus  led  his 
troops  out  one  morning  at  daybreak,  and  penetrated  an  un- 
guarded part  of  the  rampart.  The  plain  was  now  at  his 
mercy,  and  he  ravaged  it  up  to  the  walls  of  the  city.  He 
then  returned  to  Thespiae ;  and  having  fortified  it,  and  left 
Phoebidas  as  harmost,  he  led  back  his  army  to  Pelopon- 
nesus. 

Phoebidas  so  harassed  the  Thebans,  by  constantly  sending 
out  plundering  parties,  that  they  at  length  marched  all  their 
forces  to  Thespiae.  But  he  hung  on  them  with  his  peltasts 
wherever  they  went,  so  that  they  could  not  venture  to  quit 
their  phalanx.  Wearied  and  vexed,  they  were  returning  in 
such  haste  that  their  mule-drivers  threw  the  corn  they  had 
taken  off  their  beasts,  that  it  might  not  impede  them.  Phoe- 
bidas, confident  of  giving  them  a  defeat,  pressed  on  with 
his  peltasts,  directing  the  Thespian  hoplites  to  follow.  The 
Theban  horse,  happening  to  come  to  a  deep  and  apparently 
impassable  glen,  made  a  halt  and  turned  round ;  the  few 
peltasts  who  were  most  in  advance  fled ;  the  Theban  horse 
charged  ;  Phoebidas  himself  and  some  others  were  slain  ;  all 
the  peltasts  then  fled;  the  Thespian  hoplites  caught  the 
panic,  and  fled  also,  and  never  stopped  till  they  were  within 
their  own  walls.  The  Thebans  could  now  go  unopposed 
whithersoever  they  pleased ;  the  people  in  all  the  towns  were 
in    their   favor,    and  the   governing   parties  (dwaarelai)  in 


THE    SECOND    BffiOTIAN    WAR.  337 

them  stood  in  the  utmost  need  of  aid.  A  Spartan  polemarch 
and  a  mora  came  by  sea  to  garrison  Thespiae. 

In  the  spring,  (Ol.  100,  4,)  Agesilaus  prepared  to  invade 
Bceotia  again.  He  sent  directions  to  the  polemarch  at  Thes- 
piae to  occupy  Cithaeron ;  and  having  thus  safely  reached 
Plataea,  he  made  as  if  he  were  going  direct  to  Thespiae,  or- 
dering a  market  to  be  ready,  and  the  different  embassies 
to  meet  him  there.  The  Thebans  moved  all  their  forces  in 
that  direction ;  but  Agesilaus,  setting  out  at  daybreak  on 
the  road  to  Erythrae,  and  making  a  two  days'  march  in  one, 
got  within  their  works  at  that  side,  and  ravaged  all  the 
country  east  of  Thebes  to  the  borders  of  Tanagra.  The 
Thebans  hastened  to  defend  their  lands :  some  indecisive 
skirmishing  of  the  horse  and  light  troops  took  place ;  but 
Agesilaus  made  his  way  good  to  Thespiae,  and  having  set 
matters  in  order  in  that  town,  he  returned  with  his  troops 
to  Peloponnesus. 

The  following  spring,  (01.  101,  1,)  Agesilaus  having  burst 
a  blood-vessel  in  his  leg,  the  command  of  the  army  was  in- 
trusted to  Cleombrotus  ;  but,  unlike  his  able  colleague,  he 
never  thought  of  occupying  Cithaeron  till  he  was  at  its  foot. 
He  then  sent  forward  his  peltasts;  but  it  was  too  late;  the 
Thebans  and  Athenians,  who  were  already  there,  chased 
them  down.  Cleombrotus,  thinking  a  passage  now  out  of 
the  question,  retired,  and  dismissed  his  army. 

In  the  congress  of  the  allies  which  met  at  Lacedaemon, 
great  complaint  was  made  of  the  way  in  which  their  means 
were  squandered  away.  It  was  asserted  that  they  might 
get  a  fleet  to  sea  far  superior  to  that  of  the  Athenians,  with 
which  they  could  blockade  Athens  and  transport  troops  to 
any  point  of  Bceotia.  Accordingly,  sixty  triremes  were  sent 
out  under  Pollis,  which  were  stationed  at  .zEgina,  Ceos,  and 
Andros.  The  Athenian  corn-ships  stopped  at  Geraestos  in 
Euboea,  fearing  to  advance ;  and  the  Athenians,  seeing  that 
they  must  fight  or  want  food,  got  on  board  their  ships,  and, 
led  by  Chabrias,  gave  Pollis  a  defeat  off  Naxos,  and  brought 
their  corn  home.     The  Thebans,  as  the  Lacedaemonians  were 

29  QQ 


338  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

preparing  to  invade  their  country  again,  sent  to  pray  that 
the  Athenians  would  send  a  fleet  round  Peloponnesus  to 
create  a  diversion ;  and  as  they  were  now  highly  incensed 
with  the  Lacedaemonians,  they  sent  out  a  fleet  of  sixty 
ships  under  Timotheus,  the  son  of  Conon.  Timotheus 
directed  his  course  to  Corcyra,  which  he  brought  over  to  the 
Athenian  interest;  and  the  historian  remarks,  as  a  thing 
worthy  of  note,  that  none  were  made  slaves,  none  exiled, 
and  no  change  made  in  the  laws  on  this  occasion.  He  soon 
after  defeated  a  Peloponnesian  fleet  which  was  sent  out 
against  him.  The  Thebans,  meantime,  took  advantage  of 
the  diversion  to  bring  all  the  neighboring  Boeotian  towns 
to  their  former  state  of  subjection  ;  and  having  accomplished 
this,  they  turned  their  arms  against  their  old  enemies  the 
Phocians.  Unable  to  resist  single-handed,  the  Phocians 
sent  to  Lacedaemon  for  aid,  and  Cleombrotus  crossed  the 
gulf  with  four  morse  and  a  part  of  the  allies  to  protect  them ; 
the  Thebans  retired  when  they  saw  this  accession  of  force. 
(Ol.  101,  2.) 

The  Athenians,  seeing  that  all  the  advantages  of  the  war 
fell  to  the  Thebans,  who  did  not  even  contribute  to  the  ex- 
penses of  the  navy,  while  all  the  losses  were  theirs,  grew 
weary  of  it,  and  sending  an  embassy  to  Sparta,  concluded 
a  separate  peace.  (Ol.  101,3.)  Two  of  the  ambassadors 
then  sailed  off  to  recall  Timotheus  :  he  obeyed  the  summons  ; 
but  as  he  was  passing  Zacynthus,  he  landed  the  exiles  of 
that  island.  The  party  in  power  sent  off  a  complaint  to 
Lacedaemon  ;  and  the  government  there,  jealous  perhaps  of 
any  interference  with  their  allies,  declared  that  the  Athe- 
nians had  violated  the  peace.  The  allies  were  called  on  for 
their  contingents,  and  a  fleet  of  sixty  ships,  under  Mnasippus, 
sailed  to  attack  Corcyra.  This  island,  after  so  many  years' 
tranquillity,  was  now  in  a  most  flourishing  condition ;  it 
was  cultivated  like  a  garden,  and  was  covered  with  large 
and  handsome  buildings  of  every  kind.  Mnasippus  landed 
his  troops  and  committed  the  usual  ravages  of  war ;  he  then 
encamped  on  an  eminence   about  five  stadia  from  the  town, 


THE    SECOND    B(EOTIAN    WAR.  339 

on  the  other  side  of  which  he  fixed  his  naval  camp,  and,  when 
the  weather  permitted,  he  placed  a  part  of  his  fleet  before 
the  port,  thus  shutting  in  the  city  on  all  sides. 

The  Corcyraeans,  being  reduced  to  great  straits,  sent  to 
Athens,  representing  how  injurious  it  would  be  to  the  Athe- 
nian interest  if  an  island  so  wealthy  and  so  advantageously 
situated  should  fall  under  the  power  of  their  enemies.  The 
people  saw  the  force  of  these  arguments,  and  it  was  re- 
solved to  aid  them.  Stesicles  was  sent  off  at  once  with 
six  hundred  peltasts  over  land,  and  he  got  into  the  town  by 
night :  a  fleet  of  sixty  triremes  was  decreed,  and  the  com- 
mand given  to  Timotheus;  but  this  general,  not  deeming 
such  crews  as  he  could  get  at  Athens  good  enough,  went 
round  the  island  selecting  men.  The  people,  losing  patience, 
transferred  the  command  to  Iphicrates ;  and  this  active  gen- 
eral, having  received  permission  to  press  any  ship  on  the 
Attic  coast,  exerted  himself  so  effectually,  that  he  was  soon 
able  to  put  to  sea  with  a  fleet  of  seventy  ships.  (Ol.  101,  4.) 
Meantime,  the  Corcyraeans  were  suffering  from  famine; 
and  such  numbers  of  slaves  deserted  to  the  enemy  in  con- 
sequence of  it,  that  Mnasippus  had  proclamation  made  that 
he  would  sell  all  deserters.  This  not  checking  the  practice, 
he  flogged  them  and  sent  them  back  :  the  Corcyraeans  would 
not  readmit  them,  and  numbers  perished  with  hunger  be- 
neath the  walls.*  Mnasippus  was  now  so  confident  of  re- 
ducing the  town,  that  he  dismissed  a  part  of  his  mercenaries, 

*  It  is  evident  from  Xenophon's  narrative  that  the  deserters  were 
none  but  slaves.  Mitford,  although  Mnasippus  was  not  the  general  of 
a  democracy,  justly  reprehends  the  barbarous  action.  He  might  also 
have  remembered  that  Marshal  Rosen,  the  general  of  the  monarch  Louis 
XIV.,  commanding  for  another  monarch,  James  II.,  at  the  siege  of 
Derry,  in  Ireland,  collected  the  Protestants  from  the  adjoining  counties, 
and  drove  them  under  the  walls  of  Derry  to  starve.  Is  the  act  of 
Mnassippus  to  be  compared  with  this  ?  Has  Grecian  history,  by  the 
way,  any  thing  to  compete  with  the  wasting  of  the  Palatinate  by  the 
troops  of  that  Grand  Monarque  ?  or  does  it  contain  a  more  barbarous 
and  treacherous  massacre  than  that  of  Glencoe  ?  We  are  surely  no 
apologists  for  cruelty ;  but  we  would  do  justice. 


340  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

and  kept  back  two  months'  pay  from  those  whom  he  re- 
tained, in  hopes  of  being  enabled  to  divert  it  to  his  own  use. 
The  soldiers,  therefore,  grew  negligent,  and  rambled  over 
the  country.  The  Corcyraeans,  seeing  from  their  towers  all 
that  took  place,  made  a  sally,  and  killed  some,  and  made 
others  prisoners.  Mnasippus  armed  himself  and  his  hop- 
lites,  and  ordered  their  officers  to  lead  on  the  mercenaries. 
Some  of  them  said  it  would  not  be  easy  to  get  the  men  to 
fight,  as  they  did  not  receive  their  pay.  Mnasippus,  with 
true  Spartan  insolence,  struck  one  with  his  stick,  another 
with  the  but  of  his  spear.  They  led  out  their  men,  but, 
as  might  be  expected,  with  little  zeal.  The  Corcyraeans 
were  at  first  driven  back  to  their  gates ;  but  here  some  of 
them  turned,  and  mounting  the  tombs,  cast  darts  and  stones; 
some  went  in,  and  coming  out  at  other  gates,  fell  on  the  rear ; 
while  others,  forming  in  phalanx,  stood  their  ground.  The 
scale  of  battle  was  gradually  turned:  Mnasippus  found  those 
about  him  diminishing  every  minute.  The  Corcyraeans  at 
length  made  a  charge  on  him  ;  he  fell,  and  his  men  all  fled. 
The  camp  would  have  been  plundered,  but  that  the  victors 
took  the  crowd  of  slaves,  servants,  and  market-people  for  a 
reserve.  They  raised  their  trophy,  and  restored  the  dead. 
Hypermenes,  the  next  in  command  to  Mnasippus,  learning 
that  Iphicrates  was  hourly  expected,  brought  round  the 
fleet,  and  was  sending  it  away  with  the  slaves  and  plunder, 
intending  to  remain  with  his  soldiers  ;  but  they  would  not 
be  left  behind,  and  the  whole  got  on  board  and  went  to 
Leucas.  The  Corcyraeans  found  in  the  deserted  camp  abun- 
dance of  corn  and  wine,  with  numerous  slaves,  and  a  good 
many  sick  soldiers. 

Iphicrates,  meantime,  was  coasting  Peloponnesus.  As  his 
crews  were  not  select,  he  resolved  to  exercise  them  continu- 
ally on  the  way.  He  therefore  left  the  large  sails  behind,  and 
rarely  putting  up  the  others,  even  when  there  was  a  good 
breeze,  made  his  men  row  the  whole  way.  Frequently,  when 
they  came  to  the  place  where  they  were  to  dine  or  sup,  he 
took  the  fleet  a  little  way  out  to  sea,  and  then  made  them 


THE    SECOND    BOEOTIAN    WAR.  341 

face  the  shore,  and,  at  a  signal,  run  for  it :  those  that  came 
in  first  had  first  choice  of  water  and  every  thing  else  that  was 
to  be  had,  and  leisure  to  use  them ;  while  the  laggards  had 
often  not  half  done  their  meal  when  the  signal  was  made  to 
get  aboard.  In  fine  weather  he  frequently  put  to  sea  again 
after  supper  :  if  there  was  a  breeze,  the  sails  were  hoisted, 
and  the  men  took  their  rest ;  if  not,  they  rowed  and  rested 
by  turns.  He  sometimes  led  in  line,  sometimes  in  phalanx. 
In  fine,  by  the  time  he  got  into  the  enemy's  sea,  his  ships 
and  crews  were  well  prepared  for  action.  At  the  time  of 
Mnasippus'  death,  he  was  off  the  coast  of  Laconia.  His 
last  halt  in  Peloponnesus  was  in  Elis,  near  the  Alpheus : 
he  thence  crossed  to  Cephallenia,  which  he  reduced  ;  and 
having  taken  a  fleet  of  ten  triremes  coming  from  Dionysius 
of  Syracuse  to  aid  the  enemy,  he  entered  the  port  of  Cor- 
cyra  in  triumph.  Leaving  his  seamen  there  to  support  them- 
selves by  working  for  the  inhabitants  who  had  lost  their 
slaves,  he  passed  over  to  Acarnania  with  his  soldiers  to  act 
for  the  Athenian  interest;  then  taking  with  him  the  Cor- 
cyrsean  ships,  which  raised  his  fleet  to  ninety  triremes,  he 
sailed  to  Cephallenia,  where  he  levied  contributions,  and  pre- 
pared to  act  against  the  Lacedaemonians. 

Insolence  in  prosperity  was  a  vice  of  the  Greeks  in 
general ;  and  the  Thebans,  rude  and  brutal  by  nature,  came 
short  of  none  in  the  display  of  it.  The  Thespians  and  the 
Platseans  were  the  only  peoples  of  Bceotia  who  did  not 
acknowledge  their  hegemony  ;  and  now  that  they  had  the 
power,  they  resolved  to  make  them  feel  their  vengeance. 
They  took  and  razed  their  towns,  and  expelled  their  inhab- 
itants, (Ol.  101,  3,)  who  came  as  suppliants  to  Athens. 
The  Athenians,  weary  of  their  Theban  connection,  resolved 
to  make  peace,  if  possible ;  and  they  sent  to  invite  the  The- 
bans to  join  in  an  embassy  for  that  purpose  to  Sparta.  The 
Theban  leaders  did  not  think  it  prudent  to  refuse  :  their 
embassy  was  headed  by  Epaminondas,  one  of  their  most 
distinguished  men ;  the  principal  persons  on  the  part  of  the 
Athenians  were  Callias,  the  torch-bearer  of  the  Mysteries, 
29* 


342  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

and  Callistratus  and  Autocles,  the  ablest  orators  of  the  time. 
(OI.  102,  2.) 

The  Athenians  showed  clearly  the  advantages  of  peace ; 
Epaminondas  affected  the  minds  of  the  allies  by  the  picture 
he  drew  of  the  tyranny  and  oppression  of  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians; envoys  from  the  Great  King  also,  it  is  said,  appeared, 
recommending  peace.  The  Lacedaemonians  agreed  to  with- 
draw their  harmosts,  and  leave  all  states  independent ;  the 
armies  on  all  sides  were  to  be  disbanded;  and  the  peace  was 
sworn  to  by  all,  the  Lacedaemonians  swearing  for  themselves 
and  their  allies.  Possibly  it  was  this  that  suggested  to  the 
minds  of  the  Theban  deputies  that  Thebes  had  as  good  a 
right  to  a  similar  supremacy  in  Bceotia,  and  next  day  they 
required  to  have  Boeotians  substituted  for  Thebans  in  the 
treaty.  Agesilaus  replied,  that  that  could  not  be,  but  that, 
if  they  chose,  their  name  might  be  erased.  They  declined 
peace  on  these  terms,  and  went  home  in  very  low  spirits. 
The  Lacedaemonians  faithfully  withdrew  their  harmosts,  and 
the  Athenians  recalled  Iphicrates. 

King  Cleombrotus,  who  was  at  this  time  in  Phocis,  sent 
to  inquire  of  the  Ephors  how  he  should  act.  In  an  evil 
hour  they  directed  him  not  to  disband  his  army,  but  to  lead 
it  against  the  Thebans  if  they  did  not  leave  the  towns  inde- 
pendent. As  they  showed  no  inclination  to  do  so,  and  still 
kept  their  army  on  foot,  Cleombrotus  put  his  troops  in 
motion.  The  Thebans,  expecting  him  to  enter  Bceotia  at 
the  usual  passage,  guarded  a  narrow  pass;  but  he  took  the 
mountain-road  by  Thisbae,  came  to  the  port  of  Creusis, 
where  he  found  twelve  Theban  triremes,  and  then  turning 
back  encamped  at  Leuctra,  in  the  territory  of  Thespiae. 
The  Thebans  came  and  took  their  station  on  an  opposite 
eminence. 

The  Theban  army  was  commanded  by  the  seven  Baeo- 
tarchs,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  Epaminondas.  This  man, 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  that  Greece,  fertile  as  she  was 
of  great  names,  has  produced,  had  spent  the  early  part  of 
his  life  in  the  study  of  philosophy ;  he  was  extremely  poor, 


BATTLE    OF    LEUCTRA.  343 

but  he  was  joined  in  strict  friendship  with  Pelopidas,  a  young 
man  of  wealth,  and  devoted  to  war,  the  chase,  and  the  pa- 
laestra. At  the  time  of  the  seizure  of  the  Cadmeia,  Pelopidas 
was  among  the  exiles,  while  Epaminondas  remained  undis- 
turbed at  Thebes ;  the  former,  we  are  told,  was  active  in  the 
revolution,  the  latter  hailed  its  success.  But  henceforth 
both  became  equally  strenuous  in  the  service  of  their  coun- 
try. Pelopidas  usually  commanded  the  Sacred  Band,*  the 
flower  of  the  troops  of  Thebes;  the  genius  of  Epaminondas, 
more  comprehensive,  fitted  him  not  only  to  plan  campaigns 
and  conduct  armies,  but  to  devise  extensive  schemes  of 
policy. f 

Thebes  at  this  time  abounded  in  able  men  and  true 
patriots;  besides  Mellon,  Charon,  and  their  friends,  we  may 
notice  Pammenes,  the  friend  of  Epaminondas,  and  Gorgidas, 
the  organizer  of  the  Sacred  Band. 

Cleombrotus,  urged  by  his  friends  and  taunted  by  his 
enemies,  prepared  to  give  battle  without  delay.  The  The- 
ban  leaders,  though  their  troops  were  inferior  in  number, 
resolved  also  to  fight ;  for  they  knew  that  if  they  did  not, 
the  subject  towns  would  revolt,  and  the  city  itself  be  perhaps 
besieged ;  and  that  if  the  people  were  to  suffer  privations, 
they  might  change  their  politics,  and  they  themselves  again 
become  exiles,  than  which  they  deemed  it  better  far  to  die 
in  battle.  These  motives  are  assigned  by  the  historian ; 
others,  with  which  we  are  unacquainted,  doubtless  operated 
also.  Superstition  lent  its  powerful  aid  to  cheer  the  troops. 
A  prophecy  was  quoted  which  said,  that  the  Lacedaemonians 
would  be  defeated  at  the  tomb  of  the  maidens  who  slew 
themselves  when  they  had  been  violated  by  Lacedaemonian 
ambassadors.  This  tomb  was  on  the  spot,  and  the  Thebans 
adorned  it  before  the  battle.     News  also  came  from  Thebes 

*  A  body  of  three  hundred  chosen  youths,  united  in  the  bonds  of 
mutual  affection.  At  home,  they  were  the  guard  of  the  Cadmeia,  where 
they  were  maintained  at  the  public  charge  ;  in  battle,  they  stood  first 
in  the  phalanx.  (Plut.  Pelopidas,  18.) 

t  Plut.  Pelopidas,  3,  4. 


344 


HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 


that  the  doors  of  all  the  temples  had  opened  of  themselves, 
which  the  priestesses  said  portended  victory;  the  sacred 
arms,  it  was  added,  had  disappeared  from  the  Heracleion, 
as  if  Hercules  himself  was  gone  forth  to  battle.  In  all  this, 
we  may  easily  discern  the  art  of  the  able  leaders. 

Every  thing  was  adverse  to  the  Lacedaemonians.  It  was 
after  dinner  that  the  council  was  held  in  which  it  was  finally 
resolved  to  fight,  and  the  king  and  his  officers  were  heated 
with  wine;  when  the  market-people,  baggage-drivers,  and 
those  who  were  not  inclined  to  fight,  were  getting  away 
from  the  Boeotian  camp  before  the  battle,  a  party  of  the 
enemy's  horse  and  light  troops  drove  them  back  into  it,  and 
thus  augmented  the  Theban  forces;  the  Lacedaemonians 
also,  most  injudiciously,  sent  their  cavalry  down  into  the 
plain  before  their  phalanx;  for  the  Theban  horse  was  in 
excellent  order  and  discipline,  whereas  theirs  was  the  worst 
part  of  their  army :  finally,  their  phalanx  was  drawn  up  in 
three  divisions,  and  but  twelve  men  deep,  while  that  of  the 
Thebans  was  fifty  men  deep  :  for  they  judged  that  if  they 
could  defeat  the  right  wing,  commanded  by  the  king,  the 
rest  would  offer  no  difficulty. 

The  phalanx  of  the  Lacedaemonians  had  hardly  begun  to 
move,  when  the  horse  fell  back  on  it  in  all  the  confusion 
of  defeat.  The  Theban  infantry  followed  close  on  them. 
Cleombrotus  received  a  mortal  wound;  but  the  Thebans 
were  repelled,  and  the  king  removed.  The  attack  was 
however  renewed;  Deinon,  the  polemarch,  and  Sphodrias 
and  his  son  were  slain,  and  that  wing  driven  back.  When 
the  left  wing  saw  the  right  thus  defeated,  it  also  fell  back, 
and,  having  lost  a  good  many  men,  retired  over  a  ditch  which 
was  before  the  camp.  The  loss  of  the  Lacedaemonians 
was  very  considerable;  one  thousand  of  their  own  troops 
had  fallen,  and  of  the  seven  hundred  Spartans  who  were 
among  them,  but  three  hundred  remained  alive.  Nothing 
could  equal  their  amazement  at  seeing  themselves  defeated, 
a  thing  which  had  never  before  happened,  and  by  an  in- 
ferior  force !     Some  were  for   returning   to  the  field,  not 


SPARTAN    EQUANIMITY.  345 

suffering  the  Thebans  to  raise  their  trophy,  and  recovering 
their  dead  by  force  of  arms  ;  but  the  polemarchs,  considering 
the  loss  they  had  sustained,  and  seeing  the  allies  dejected, 
or  even  rejoiced  at  the  event  of  the  battle,  deemed  it  best 
to  hold  a  council.  It  was  there  resolved  to  send  a  herald 
to  demand  the  bodies  of  the  slain,  and  thus  acknowledge 
a  defeat.  The  Thebans  gave  the  bodies,  and  raised  their 
trophy. 

Such  was  the  battle  of  Leuctra,  the  most  important  ever 
fought  by  Greeks  against  Greeks ;  less  remarkable  for  the 
loss  of  life  in  it  than  for  its  moral  effect.  It  dissolved  the 
spell  which  so  long  had  bound  all  Greece :  it  proved  that 
the  Spartan  troops  were  not  invincible,  as  had  been  fondly 
imagined ;  it  in  effect  broke  the  Lacedaemonian  power  for- 
ever, and  henceforth  Lacedsemon  performs  but  a  secondary 
part  in  the  affairs  of  Greece.* 


CHAPTER   XlV.f 

SPARTAN    EQUANIMITY.  JASON  OF    PHERiE.  SECOND  BOEO- 
TIAN WAR    CONTINUED.  RETURN  OF  THE  MESSENIANS. 

AFFAIRS    OF    PELOPONNESUS. BATTLE    OF    MANTINEIA. 

The  news  of  this  great  defeat  reached  Sparta  on  the  last 
day  of  the  festival  called  the  Naked  Games,  while  the  cho- 
rus of  men  was  performing.  The  Ephors  did  not  stop  the 
games  ;  they  communicated  the  names  of  the  slain  to  their 
relatives,  and  directed  the  women  to  bear  the  calamity  in  si- 
lence. Next  day,  the  relatives  of  the  slain  appeared  in  public 
joyful  and  elate,  while  those  of  the  survivors  kept  retired,  or 
moved  about  with  downcast  looks.     It  was  resolved  to  send 

*  Polybius,  iv.  81,12. 

t  Xen.  vi.  4,  to  the  end  ;  vii.  Diodor.  xv.  62 — 83.  Plut.,  Agesilaus 
and  Pelopidas. 

R  R 


346  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

an  army  to  bring  off  the  troops  at  Leuctra  ;  the  elder  men  of 
the  four  morae  which  were  there,  and  the  two  morse  which 
remained  at  home,  were  despatched  under  Archidamus,  the 
son  of  Agesilaus ;  troops  came  from  Tegea  and  Mantineia 
where  the  aristocratic  interest  was  now  strong ;  the  Corin- 
thians, Phliasians,  Sicyonians,  and  Achaeans  aided  cheer- 
fully ;  other  towns  also  sent  troops.  A  fleet  was  prepared  by 
the  Lacedaemonians  and  Corinthians  to  transport  the  army 
over  if  needful. 

The  Thebans,  on  their  side,  sent  off  instantly  to  the  Athe- 
nians and  to  Jason  of  Pherae,  (the  Tagos  of  Thessaly,)  to  in- 
form them  of  this  great  victory,  and  calling  on  them  to  aid 
now  and  put  down  the  Lacedaemonians  forever.  To  the 
Athenians  the  news  was  any  thing  but  agreeable,  and  they 
gave  no  answer  respecting  the  proposed  alliance.  Jason, 
with  a  great  show  of  zeal,  got  a  fleet  to  sea ;  and  putting 
himself  at  the  head  of  his  mercenaries  and  some  cavalry, 
entered  Phocis,  with  which  he  was  at  war,  passed  all  through 
it  with  such  rapidity  as  gave  no  time  for  measures  to  impede 
him,  and  came  and  joined  the  Theban  army.  A  joint  attack 
on  the  Lacedaemonians  was  proposed  to  him  ;  but  it  did  not 
suit  his  ulterior  views  to  let  the  Thebans  become  too  power- 
ful, and  he  preferred  mediating  a  truce.  The  Lacedaemo- 
nians, taking  advantage  of  the  truce,  decamped  in  the  night, 
and  after  a  toilsome  march  joined  Archidamus  in  the  Me- 
garic  territory.  The  whole  army  returned  to  Corinth,  and 
there  broke  up  and  went  home. 

Jason  of  Pherae,  who  now  first  appears  on  the  political 
stage,  was  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  men  whom  Greece 
had  seen,  and  he  had  actually  formed  those  plans  of  con- 
quest and  extensive  Grecian  dominion  which  we  shall  after- 
wards see  realized  by  others.  In  a  conversation  with  Po- 
lydamas,  the  leading  man  at  Pharsalus,  when  proposing  to 
him  to  join  in  his  projects,  he  thus  disclosed  his  views.  By 
negotiation  or  force  he  had  brought  some,  and  was  resolved 
to  bring  the  rest,  of  the  Thessalian  towns  under  his  suprem- 
acy.    He  should  then,  he  counted,  be  at  the  head  of  6000 


JASON    OF    PHEILK.  347 

horse,  and  upwards  of  10,000  hoplites,  besides  a  body  of 
6000  mercenaries  in  the  highest  state  of  energy  and  disci- 
pline :  a  part  of  the  surrounding  peoples,  such  as  the  Mara- 
cans  and  Dolopians,  and  Alcetas,  prince  of  the  Molossians, 
obeyed  him  at  present,  and  it  would  be  easy  to  bring  Ma- 
cedonia and  the  others  to  the  same  condition,  from  all  of 
which  an  immense  number  of  light  troops  might  be  obtained. 
The  Boeotians  were  his  allies,  and  the  Athenians  would 
willingly  be  so  ;  but  he  looked  forward  to  depriving  them 
of  the  empire  of  the  sea ;  for  having  Macedonia,  whence 
they  drew  their  timber  and  such  a  number  of  Penests  to 
furnish  rowers,  and  so  fertile  a  country  to  supply  corn,  and 
so  much  tribute  from  the  peoples  of  the  main  land,  it  would 
be  easy  for  him  to  equip  fleets  superior  to  theirs.  Finally, 
the  retreat  of  the  Cyreans  and  the  victories  of  Agesilaus  had 
shown  the  real  weakness  of  the  Persian  empire,  and  its  con- 
quest would  probably  be  a  matter  of  no  great  difficulty. 
Polydamas,  having  vainly  applied  for  aid  at  Lacedaemon,  had 
agreed  to  the  proposals  of  Jason,  who  was  now  Tagos  of 
Thessaly.  He  apportioned  the  number  of  horse  and  foot 
that  each  town  should  supply,  and  he  found  that  he  had 
8000  horse,  20,000  hoplites,  and  peltasts  "  enough  to  face 
the  world  in  arms."  He  put  the  tribute  of  the  Pericecians 
on  the  equitable  footing  on  which  it  had  been  formerly 
placed  by  Scopas.* 

But  it  was  not  for  Thessaly  to  acquire  the  supremacy  of 
Greece  and  to  conquer  Persia.  Jason,  with  all  his  great  tal- 
ents, was  not  a  hereditary  monarch,  and  he  had  a  proud 
and  jealous  nobility  to  contend  with,  who  regarded  him  but 
as  their  equal  ;  the  best  part  of  his  troops  were  mercenaries, 
and  of  course  little  to  be  depended  on ;  and  Greece  still  pos- 
sessed great  men.     His  project  therefore  failed. 

After  his  return  to  Thessaly,  (Ol.  102,  3,)  Jason  prepared 
to  offer  a  great  sacrifice  at  the  approaching  Pythian  games, 

*  Xen.  vi.  i.  There  were  two  of  the  Scopads  to  whom  this  assess- 
ment might  be  ascribed ;  the  one  in  the  time  of  Xerxes,  the  other  the 
friend  of  the  younger  Cyrus.    It  is  probably  the  former  that  is  meant 


343  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

(some  suspected  that  he  had  thoughts  of  seizing  the  treas- 
ures at  Delphi  :)  he  directed  that  each  town  should  furnish 
him  oxen,  sheep,  goats,  and  swine  for  the  purpose ;  and 
though  the  imposition  was  very  light,  it  produced  one  thou- 
sand oxen  and  ten  thousand  of  each  of  the  other  animals. 
But  as  he  was  reviewing  his  Pheraean  cavalry,  previous  to 
setting  out,  he  was  fallen  on  and  slain  by  seven  young  men. 
Two  of  the  assassins  were  cut  down  on  the  spot ;  the  others 
mounted  the  horses  which  stood  ready,  and  escaped,  and  they 
were  received  with  great  honor  in  most  Grecian  towns,  —  a 
proof  of  the  terror  with  which  Jason  was  regarded.  He  was 
succeeded  by  his  brothers  Polydorus  and  Polyphron,  the  lat- 
ter of  whom,  it  was  said,  murdered  the  former,  and,  after  a 
tyrannical  reign  of  one  year,  was  himself  assassinated  by 
Alexander  the  son  of  Polydorus.* 

A  few  months  after  the  battle  of  Leuctra,  the  Arcadians, 
who  had  begun  to  feel  the  necessity  of  a  closer  political 
union,  founded  a  common  town,  named  Megalopolis,  (^ 
Mey&fo]  flohg,)  near  the  confines  of  Laconia,  and  the  inhab- 
itants of  several  towns  and  villages  were  forced  to  remove 
to  it.  The  general  council  of  the  Arcadians  now  formed 
was  named  the  Myrii,  (ol  Mvqwi,)  or  Ten  Thousand,  from 
the  number  of  fighting-men  it  contained.  A  body  of  five 
thousand  men,  named  the  Eparits,  were  kept  in  pay  by  the 
confederacy  to  act  against  strangers  or  any  state  of  the  con- 
federacy itself  that  should  prove  refractory.  The  Arcadian 
people  (to  'jQxadixbv)  now  for  the  first  time  appear  as  a 
political  body  in  the  affairs  of  Greece. 

The  Mantineans  also  set  about  rebuilding  and  walling  in 
their  town.  Agesilaus  came  and  remonstrated  against  it, 
but  he  did  no  more.  In  the  neighboring  town  of  Tegea, 
a  sedition  arose  between  the  democratic  and  the  oligarchic 
parties,  and  the  former,  being  defeated,  sent  to  Mantineia  for 
aid  ;  the  gates  were  opened  to  the  Mantineans  ;  the  principal 
leaders  of  the  opposite  party  were  taken  from  the  temple> 

*  Xen.  vi.  4,  29—37. 


THE    SECOND    BOEOTIAN    WAR.  349 

where  they  had  sought  refuge,  tied  on  a  wagon,  brought 
backhand  tried  and  executed,  the  Mantineans  sitting  jointly 
as  judges.  About  eight  hundred  fled  to  Lacedaemon;  and, 
as  the  Mantineans  had  now  clearly  violated  the  terms  of  the 
peace,  Agesilaus  was  directed  (Ol.  102,  3)  to  lead  an  army 
against  them.  The  Mantineans  were  joined  by  all  the  Ar- 
cadians except  the  Orchomenians,  who  were  at  enmity  with 
them ;  they  were  also  aided  by  the  Argives  and  the  Eleians, 
and  it  was  expected  that  the  Thebans  would  send  an  army 
into  Peloponnesus. 

The  other  Arcadians  assembled  their  forces  at  A  sea,  while 
the  Mantineans  advanced  to  attack  Orchomenus  ;  but  a  body 
of  mercenaries  had  arrived  there  from  Corinth,  and  they 
were  repelled  and  driven  home.  Agesilaus  had  meantime 
entered  and  ravaged  their  lands.  The  Arcadians,  having 
moved  to  the  borders  of  Tegea  and  Mantineia,  were  now  in 
his  rear.  Some  were  for  attacking  him  at  once,  but  the  ma- 
jority preferred  waiting  till  they  were  joined  by  the  Man- 
tineans. Agesilaus  resolved  not  to  impede  the  junction, 
deeming  it  best  to  have  all  his  enemies  in  fair  field  before 
him.  Next  morning,  at  daybreak,  he  was  joined  by  the  mer- 
cenaries from  Orchomenus,  and  by  the  Phliasian  horse.  He 
remained  there  for  four  days,  and  then  led  his  army  home, 
it  being  now  mid-winter. 

The  Thebans  arrived  soon  after,  and  finding  no  enemy  in 
the  country,  were  preparing  to  go  home  again ;  but  the  Ar- 
cadians, Eleians,  and  Argives,  seeing  the  number  and  condi- 
tion of  the  Theban  army,  were  urgent  with  them  to  join  in 
an  invasion  of  Laconia.  This  army  was  composed  of  Boeo- 
tians, elate  with  the  victory  at  Leuctra,  of  Phocians,  Euboe- 
ans,  both  Locrians,  Acarnanians,  Heracleotes,  and  Malians, 
with  horse  and  peltasts  from  Thessaly,  and  was  led  by  Epam- 
inondas.  The  Theban  leader  urged  that  the  passes  were 
well  guarded,  and  that  the  Lacedaemonians,  who  could  soon 
collect  their  forces,  would  fight  with  desperation  on  their 
own  soil,  and  he  hesitated  to  assent.  But  when  some  per- 
sons came  from  Caryae,  and  told  how  destitute  of  defence 
30 


350  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  country  was,  and  offered  to  be  their  guides,  and  some 
of  the  Pericecians  sent  offering  to  join  them,  and  telling  how 
they  had  already  refused  to  take  arms  at  the  call  of  the  Spar- 
tans, he  no  longer  hesitated. 

Laconia  was  now  (Ol.  102,  4)  invaded  for  the  first  time 
since  the  Dorian  conquest.*  The  Thebans  entered  by  the 
way  of  Caryae,  the  Arcadians  through  the  Sciritis,  and  they 
joined  their  allies  at  Caryae.  They  plundered  and  burned 
Sellasia ;  and  next  day,  moving  down  the  left  bank  of  the 
Eurotas,  came  opposite  Sparta,  wasting  and  burning  the 
country  as  they  advanced.  The  Spartans  were  in  arms  at 
the  temple  of  Athena  Alea,  and  the  invaders  did  not  venture 
to  cross  the  river.  The  women,  who  had  never  seen  an  ene- 
my, could  not  endure  the  sight  of  the  smoke  rising  from  the 
burnt  houses;  but  the  men,  aware  of  the  paucity  of  their 
numbers,  doubted  if  they  could  defend  their  unwalled  city. 
Liberty  was  offered  to  such  of  the  Helots  as  would  take  arms 
in  defence  of  the  country.  As  no  less  than  six  thousand  of- 
fered themselves,  their  numbers  were  a  new  cause  of  alarm, 
till  aid  arrived  from  Phlius,  Corinth,  Epidaurus,  Pellene,  and 
other  towns ;  and  these,  with  the  mercenaries  from  Orcho- 
menus,  formed  a  sufficient  force  to  keep  them  in  check. 

The  invaders  crossed  the  Eurotas  opposite  Amyclae,  and 
marched  up  its  right  bank  toward  Sparta.  The  Thebans 
every  night  secured  their  camp  by  placing  hewn  trees  before 
it ;  the  Arcadians  kept  no  order,  but  ran  every  where  in  quest 
of  plunder.  On  the  third  or  fourth  day,  the  cavalry  reached 
the  horse-course  close  to  Sparta.  The  few  Lacedaemonian 
horse  advanced  against  them,  and  three  hundred  young 
men,  who  had  been  placed  in  ambush  in  the  temple  of  the 
Tyndaridae,  rushing  out  at  the  same  time,  the  enemy's  horse 
stood  not  to  receive  them  ;  many  of  the  foot  also  fled  when 
they  saw  the  horse  give  way.  It  being  deemed  too  hazardous 
to  risk  an  attack  on  the  city,  the  army  retraced  its  steps,  and 

*  Plutarch  (Pelop.  24)  gives  the  number  of  the  invading  army  at 
70,000  men.     Diodorus  (xv.  62)  says  it  was  upwards  of  50,000. 


THE    SECOND    BCEOTIAN    WAR.  351 

following  the  course  of  the  river  down  to  the  sea-coast,  took 
and  burned  Helos  and  such  towns  as  were  open.  Three 
days  were  spent  in  attacking  Gythion,  where  the  naval  ar- 
senal was,  and  some  of  the  Pericecians  came  and  aided  in  the 
attack. 

To  obtain  the  aid  of  Athens  was  now  of  vital  importance 
to  the  Spartans  :  accordingly  deputies  from  them  and  their 
allies  appeared  in  that  city.  The  senate  convoked  the  as- 
sembly without  delay.  The  Lacedaemonians  spoke,  remind- 
ing the  Athenians  how  in  time  of  need  their  two  states  had 
always  stood  by  each  other,  and  that  now,  if  united,  they 
might  humble  Thebes.  There  was  a  murmur  in  the  assembly 
of"  They  now  speak  fair,  but  when  they  had  the  power  they 
kept  us  down  !  "  What  weighed  most  in  their  favor  was, 
that,  when  the  Thebans  wanted  to  destroy  Athens,  they  had 
prevented  it ;  but  it  still  was  a  matter  of  doubt  whether  they 
or  the  Mantineans  had  been  the  aggressors,  and  therefore 
how  far  the  Athenians  could  justly  interfere.  The  Corinth- 
ian Cleiteles  said  that,  however  that  might  be,  there  was  no 
doubt  of  Corinth's  having  observed  the  peace,  and  yet  the 
Thebans,  in  their  passage  through  it,  had  robbed  and  plun- 
dered, cut  the  trees,  and  burnt  the  houses.  This  decided 
the  question  ;  aid  was  voted,  and  Iphicrates  appointed  to 
command.  Without  a  moment's  delay  the  Athenians 
marched  to  Corinth,  and  thence  to  Arcadia.  The  Thebans, 
having  spent  three  months  in  Laconia,  were  now  in  retreat  ; 
for  their  Argive,  Eleian,  and  Arcadian  allies  were  gradually 
leaving  them  and  going  home  to  secure  their  plunder,  and 
provisions  were  becoming  every  day  more  scarce :  moreover, 
as  it  was  winter,  they  were  themselves  anxious  to  get  home. 
Iphicrates,  as  they  advanced,  fell  back  to  the  Isthmus;  but 
he  made  no  effort  to  impede  their  retreat,  and  Xenophon 
greatly  blames  his  conduct  on  this  occasion. 

This  historian,  the  friend  and  panegyrist  of  the  Spartans, 
though  he  has  never  perhaps  wilfully  falsified,  omits  on 
several  occasions  matters  to  their  discredit.  On  the  present, 
he  never  tells  how  Messene  was  once  more  raised  to  the 


352  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

rank  of  an  independent  state.  Other  authorities  *  inform  us 
that  Epaminondas  led  his  army  into  Messene,  called  the  de- 
scendants of  the  Messenians  to  liberty,  invited  back  those 
who  were  in  Italy,  Sicily,  and  elsewhere,  built  at  the  foot  of 
Ithome  a  city  named  Messene,  and  left  a  Theban  garrison 
to  protect  it.  Thus  the  Lacedaemonians  lost  one  half  of 
their  territory  forever,  and  got  instead  of  serfs  inveterate 
foes,  —  a  just  retribution  for  their  original  injustice  ! 

In  the  spring,  envoys  from  the  Lacedaemonians  and  their 
allies  again  appeared  at  Athens.  An  alliance  was  proposed 
on  the  equitable  and  natural  terms  of  the  Athenians  com- 
manding by  sea,  and  the  Lacedaemonians  by  land.  This 
proposal  was  at  first  vehemently  approved  of;  but  Cephiso- 
dotus,  an  Athenian  orator,  argued  that  in  such  case  the 
Athenians  could  only  have  the  command  over  Helots  and 
mercenaries,  as  these  would  compose  the  principal  part 
of  the  Lacedaemonian  marine,  while  their  own  horsemen 
and  hoplites  would  be  commanded  by  Spartan  officers. 
He  proposed  that  there  should  be  a  joint  command,  and 
it  was  decreed  that  each  should  hold  it  for  five  days  alter- 
nately. 

A  combined  army  was  sent  soon  after  (Ol.  103,  1)  to 
guard  the  Isthmus;  but,  owing  to  the  imprudence  or 
treachery  of  a  Lacedaemonian  polemarch,  the  Thebans 
passed  unopposed,  and  joining  their  allies,  attacked  Sicyon 
and  Pellene.  They  then  turned  to  Epidaurus,  and  ravaged 
the  country,  and  as  they  were  returning  they  made  a  sudden 
rush  for  the  gate  of  Corinth  leading  to  Phlius :  but  some 
light  troops,  commanded  by  Chabrias  the  Athenian,  came 
out,  and  mounting  the  tombs  and  other  eminences,  drove 
them  off.  The  Corinthians  dragged  the  bodies  under  the 
walls,  and  raised  a  trophy  when  the  Thebans  had  sent  to 
demand  them. 

*  Plut.  Pelop.  24.  Diodor.  xv.  66.  Pausanias  (iv.  26,  27)  relates 
it  with  his  due  complement  of  dreams  and  wonders,  such  as  the  finding 
of  the  pledge  buried  by  Aristomenes,  (see  above,  p.  52,)  which  con- 
tained the  rites  of  the  Great  Goddesses,  etc. 


THE    SECOND    BffiOTIAN    WAR.  353 

At  this  very  time  arrived  a  fleet  of  upwards  of  twenty 
ships,  sent  by  Dionysius,  the  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  to  aid  the 
Lacedaemonians.  On  board  of  this  fleet  were  Celtic  and 
Iberian  troops,  the  first  of  these  remote  nations  ever  seen 
in  Greece,  and  about  fifty  horsemen,  probably  Iberians. 
Next  day,  the  Thebans  and  their  allies  were  drawn  out, 
and  filled  the  plain  down  to  the  sea,  wasting  it  every  where. 
The  Corinthian  and  Athenian  horse  feared  to  engage  them ; 
but  the  new-comers  attacked  them  boldly,  and  by  their 
desultory  mode  of  fighting  did  them  much  mischief.  A 
few  days  afterwards,  the  Thebans  and  their  allies  separated 
and  went  home  ;  and  the  troops  of  Dionysius,  having  made 
an  irruption  into  Sicyon,  and  defeated  the  Sicyonians  who 
came  out  against  them,  also  departed  and  returned  to  Syr- 
acuse. 

Hitherto  the  Peloponnesians  of  their  party  had  willingly 
submitted  to  the  supremacy  of  the  Thebans;  but  their  late 
successes  had  elated  the  Arcadians,  and  Lycomedes  of  Man- 
tineia,  a  man  of  birth,  wealth,  and  ambition,  represented  to 
them,  that  they  alone  were  genuine  Peloponnesians ;  that  in 
numbers  and  in  strength  of  body  they  excelled  all  the  other 
Greeks,  for  without  their  aid  neither  the  Lacedaemonians 
nor  the  Thebans  could  have  achieved  what  they  had  done  ; 
and  that  if  they  were  wise,  they  would  not  follow  either  the 
one  or  the  other,  but  insist  on  equal  command  with  the 
Thebans.  Language  like  this  inflated  the  Arcadians ;  they 
regarded  Lycomedes  as  the  first  of  men,  and  followed  his 
directions  in  all  things.  Just  at  this  time,  the  Argives 
having  invaded  Epidaurus,  a  body  of  Corinthians,  Athenians, 
and  Chabrias'  mercenaries  had  cut  off  their  retreat :  the 
Arcadians  marched  to  their  aid,  and  liberated  them.  Again 
they  attacked  Asine  and  Laconia,  defeated  the  garrison, 
and  killed  the  polemarch.  In  fine,  says  Xenophon,  neither 
night,  nor  storm,  nor  length  of  way,  not  mountains  checked 
them,  so  that  they  were  soon  regarded  as  the  best  soldiers 
of  the  time.*     The  Thebans  gradually  became  suspicious 

*  It  is  evidently  the  Eparits  that  he  means. 
30*  ss 


354  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

of  them ;  the  Eleians  also  cooled  toward  them,  for  when 
they  asked  them  to  restore  the  towns  in  Triphylia,  of  which 
the  Lacedaemonians  had  deprived  them,  they  met  with  a 
refusal. 

The  Lacedaemonians  always  looked  to  Persia  in  time  of 
need,  for  in  the  present  state  of  Greece  the  gold  of  Persia 
could  in  general  turn  the  political  beam.  In  consequence 
of  their  solicitations,  an  Abydene,  named  Philiscos,  came 
from  Ariobarzanes,  satrap  of  Bithynia,  and  summoned  a 
congress  to  Delphi  to  treat  of  peace.  But  the  Thebans, 
insisting  on  the  independence  of  Messene,  the  object  of 
Philiscos'  coming  could  not  be  attained.  With  the  money 
committed  to  him  by  the  satrap,  he  therefore  raised  a  large 
body  of  mercenaries  to  aid  the  Lacedaemonians.  A  second 
armament  having  come  from  Dionysius,  (01.  103,  2,)  Ar- 
chidamus  united  it  with  the  Lacedaemonian  troops  ;  and  he 
took  the  revolted  town  of  Caryae  by  assault,  and  put  every 
soul  in  it  to  death.  He  then  advanced  into  Arcadia,  and 
laid  waste  the  lands  of  Parrhasiae.  When  the  Arcadians 
and  Argives  appeared,  he  fell  back  to  the  heights  over 
Midea.  Here  the  commander  of  the  Sicilian  troops  left 
him,  saying  his  term  of  service  was  expired,  and  led  his 
men  back  to  Sparta ;  but  finding  a  narrow  pass  on  the  road 
occupied  by  the  Messenians,  he  sent  to  summon  Archidamus 
to  his  aid.  Archidamus  made  no  delay  :  at  a  turn  of  the 
road  they  found  the  Argives  and  Arcadians  prepared  to  dis- 
pute their  passage.  The  Spartan  prince  encouraged  his 
men ;  favorable  signs,  it  is  said,  appeared  in  the  sky ;  the 
attack  was  impetuous,  the  resistance  of  the  enemy  brief; 
the  horse  and  the  Celts  did  great  execution  on  the  fugitives  ; 
and  the  Lacedaemonians,  without  the  loss  of  a  single  man, 
gained  a  most  complete  victory :  hence  this  is  called  the 
Tearless  Battle.  When  the  joyous  tidings  reached  Sparta, 
they  were  received  with  tears  of  joy  by  Agesilaus,  the  sena- 
tors, the  ephors,  and  all  the  people ;  and  the  Thebans  and 
Eleians  were  hardly  less  pleased  than  they  at  this  humiliation 
of  the  pride  of  the  Arcadians. 


AFFAIRS    OF    PELOPONNESUS.  355 

The  Thebans  did  not  confine  their  views  to  Peloponnesus ; 
they  wished  also  to  establish  an  influence  in  Thessaly,  where 
there  was  a  strong  party  hostile  to  the  Tagos,  Alexander. 
Pelopidas  and  his  friend  Ismenias  had  gone  thither,  (Ol. 
103,  1,)  but  by  the  imprudence  of  the  former  they  were 
both  made  prisoners.  An  army  of  eight  thousand  hoplites 
and  six  hundred  horse  was  immediately  sent  off;  but  Alex- 
ander being  assisted  from  Athens,  and  the  Thessalians  not 
supporting  them  as  expected,  and  provisions  failing,  the 
BcBOtarchs  resolved  to  retire.  On  their  retreat  they  suffered 
greatly  from  the  Thessalian  cavalry  ;  till  Epaminondas,  who 
was  serving  in  a  private  station,  was  called  on  by  the  soldiers 
to  take  the  command ;  and  by  a  proper  use  of  the  horse 
and  light  troops  he  insured  the  safe  retreat  of  the  hoplites. 
The  release  of  Pelopidas  was  afterwards  effected  by  force 
or  by  negotiation. 

The  Thebans,  aware  of  the  strength  which  the  Lacedae- 
monians derived  from  their  connection  with  Persia,  resolved 
to  try  if  they  could  divert  to  themselves  the  golden  stream 
that  flowed  from  thence.  They  called  together  their  allies, 
and  stating  that  a  Lacedaemonian  agent  was  at  Susa,  en- 
gaged them  to  join  in  sending  an  embassy  thither.  Pelopi- 
das went  on  the  part  of  the  Thebans  ;  the  Athenians,  when 
they  heard  of  it,  sent  thither  also  Timagoras  and  Leon  to 
attend  to  their  interests.     (Ol.  103,  2.) 

Pelopidas  conducted  the  negotiation  with  great  ability. 
He  reminded  the  King  of  the  services  of  the  Thebans  in  the 
time  of  Xerxes,  made  a  merit  of  their  impeding  the  sacrifice 
of  Agesilaus,  and  dwelt  on  the  fame  they  had  acquired  by  the 
victory  at  Leuctra  and  the  invasion  of  Laconia.  Timagoras 
the  Athenian  seconded  him  in  all  things.  The  King  asked 
Pelopidas  what  he,  desired  to  be  written  :  he  replied,  Mes- 
sene  to  be  independent,  the  Athenians  to  lay  up  their  ships, 
and  if  they  did  not,  war  to  be  made  on  them,  and  any  city 
refusing  its  aid  to  be  the  first  attacked.  The  rescript  was 
made  to  this  effect.  On  the  return  of  the  ambassadors,  the 
Thebans  summoned  deputies  from  all  the  states  to  hear  it : 


356  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  Persian  who  bore  it  showed  the  royal  seal ;  the  Thebans 
called  on  all  to  swear  to  it,  if  they  would  be  friends  to  them 
and  the  King :  the  deputies  replied,  that  they  were  sent  to 
hear,  not  to  swear.  The  Thebans,  finding  themselves  thus 
foiled,  sent  deputies  to  the  separate  states,  menacing  them 
with  their  wrath  and  that  of  the  King  if  they  did  not  swear  to 
the  treaty  ;  but,  the  Corinthians  setting  the  example,  several 
refused,  and  the  hopes  of  the  Thebans  to  gain  the  supremacy 
in  this  way  were  frustrated.  Timagoras  the  Athenian  was 
on  his  return  convicted  by  his  colleague  of  having  taken 
large  bribes,  and  was  put  to  death  by  a  sentence  of  the  people. 

Epaminondas,  anxious  to  extend  the  Theban  influence  in 
Peloponnesus,  now  directed  his  views  to  the  Achaeans,  who 
had  as  yet  taken  no  decided  part.  He  therefore  (Ol.  103,  3) 
desired  Peisias,  the  Argive  general,  to  occupy  the  Oneian 
mountains ;  and  as  the  Athenian  and  Lacedaemonian  troops 
there  guarded  it  negligently,  Peisias  was  able  one  night  to 
seize  the  height  over  Cenchreae.  The  Thebans  then  passed 
safely,  and  being  joined  by  their  allies,  entered  Achaia.  The 
constitution  of  this  country  had  always  had  a  large  portion  of 
aristocracy  in  it,  and  the  persons  of  highest  rank  and  wealth 
deemed  it  now  their  wisest  course  to  appeal  to  the  justice 
and  magnanimity  of  Epaminondas  for  protection  against  their 
democratic  opponents.  They  were  not  deceived  ;  the  illus- 
trious Theban,  probably  judging  that  the  people  would  not 
be  happier  under  a  pure  democracy,  made  no  change  what- 
ever in  the  constitution,  and,  satisfied  with  the  Achaeans  join- 
ing the  Theban  alliance,  led  home  his  troops.  But  his  con- 
duct was  so  loudly  clamored  at  by  the  Arcadians  and  the 
Achaean  democrats,  as  having  in  effect  given  Achaia  to  the 
Lacedaemonians,  that  the  Thebans  sent  harmosts  to  the 
Achaean  towns,  expelled  the  upper  ranks,  and  established 
pure  democracies.  The  exiles  however,  who  were  numer- 
ous, recovered  the  towns  one  after  the  other,  and  then 
openly  took  the  Lacedaemonian  side  ;  and  the  Arcadians  had 
thus  enemies  on  the  north  as  well  as  the  south. 

The  ever-varying  political  relations  of  Greece  now  assume 


AFFAIRS    OF    PELOPONNESUS.  357 

a  new  form.  The  town  of  Oropus,  on  the  confines  of  Attica 
and  Bceotia,  which  had  long  been  subject  to  the  Athenians, 
was  now  seized  by  a  party  of  exiles,  aided  by  Themison,  tyrant 
of  Eretria  in  Eubcea.  The  Athenians  instantly  recalled  their 
general  Chares,  who  was  at  Phlius,  and  marched  with  all  their 
forces  to  recover  it ;  and  at  their  approach  Themison  with- 
drew, having  given  up  the  town  to  the  Thebans  to  keep  till 
it  should  be  legally  determined  who  had  a  right  to  it.  The 
Athenians  were  offended  with  the  Thebans  on  this  account, 
and  with  their  allies  for  not  having  come  to  their  assistance  : 
and  the  able  Lycomedes,  the  Arcadian,  observing  their  dis- 
satisfaction, represented  to  the  Ten  Thousand  that  it  might 
not  be  difficult  now  to  engage  the  Athenians  in  an  alliance 
with  Arcadia  ;  and  he  went  himself  to  Athens  to  make  the 
proposal.  It  seemed  at  first  strange  to  the  Athenians  that 
they,  the  friends  of  the  Lacedaemonians,  should  become  the 
allies  of  their  enemies  ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  they  saw 
that  it  was  for  the  interest  of  both  to  detach  the  Arcadians 
from  the  Thebans,  and  they  accepted  the  proposed  alliance. 
Lycomedes,  having  thus  succeeded,  got  on  board  a  ship  to 
return  home  ;  but  happening  to  land  at  the  place  where  most 
of  the  Arcadian  exiles  dwelt,  he  was  fallen  on  by  them  and 
slain,  and  with  him  died  Arcadia's  chance  of  supremacy. 

Soon  afterwards  Corinth  made  peace  with  Thebes,  with 
the  consent  of  Lacedsemon,  and  a  similar  peace  was  made  by 
the  Phliasians. 

The  scene  of  war  now  changes  (Ol.  103,  4)  to  Elis,  which 
was  invaded  by  the  Arcadians.  The  Eleians  called  on 
the  Lacedaemonians,  and  Archidamus  entered  Arcadia ;  but 
having  sustained  a  defeat  he  was  forced  to  retige. 

The  Arcadians  were  masters  of  Olympia  when  the  time  of 
the  games  came,  (01.  104,  1,)  and  they  prepared  to  celebrate 
them  with  the  people  of  Pisa,  who  claimed  the  right  from 
of  old.  But  as  they  were  in  the  midst  of  them,  the  Eleians 
came  in  arms,  aided  by  the  Achaeans ;  and  they  fought  with 
and  defeated  the  Arcadians  and  Argives  hard  by  the  sacred 
enclosure  of  the  Altis.     Next  day,  finding  the  town  barrica- 


358  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

ded,  they  retired,  having  astonished  by  their  prowess  the 
assembled  Greeks,  who  had  hitherto  held  them  in  contempt 
as  soldiers. 

At  Olympia,  as  at  Delphi,  there  was  a  large  quantity  of 
treasure,  votive  offerings,  and  the  property  of  states  and  in- 
dividuals intrusted  to  the  sanctity  of  religion.  This  treasure, 
now  in  the  power  of  the  Arcadians,  was  employed  by  them 
in  the  payment  of  their  Eparits  ;  but  the  Mantineans,  either 
from  religion  or  from  the  prevalence  of  the  aristocratic  inter- 
est, declared  that  they  would  have  no  share  in  the  sacrilege ; 
and  collecting  among  themselves  their  proportion  of  the  pay 
of  the  Eparits,  they  sent  it  to  the  general  government.  For 
this  their  magistrates  were  summoned  before  the  Ten  Thou- 
sand, and  on  their  not  appearing  they  were  condemned,  and 
a  party  of  the  Eparits  sent  to  seize  them.  The  Mantineans 
closed  their  gates,  and  would  not  admit  them.  Many  mem- 
bers of  the  Ten  Thousand  now  took  courage,  and  spoke  out 
against  the  sacrilege.  This  feding  becoming  general,  such 
of  the  Eparits  as  could  not  afford  to  serve  without  pay  re- 
tired, and  this  force  now  consisted  only  of  men  of  some  sub- 
stance. Those  who  had  seized  the  sacred  treasures,  fearing 
to  be  called  to  account,  sent  off  to  Thebes,  and  declared 
that  if  a  force  were  not  sent,  all  Arcadia  would  Laconise. 
The  other  party  then  made  the  Arcadian  people  send  an  em- 
bassy to  the  Thebans,  desiring  them  not  to  come  in  arms  to 
Arcadia  unless  when  called  on.  They  at  the  same  time  made 
peace  with  the  Eleians. 

This  peace  was  sworn  to  in  Tegea  by  all  the  Arcadians, 
and  by  the  Theban  commander  of  three  hundred  Boeotians 
who  were  in  ^Jiat  town.  But  in  the  midst  of  the  festivities 
in  which  they  were  indulging  on  occasion  of  it,  the  gates 
were  closed  by  the  Thebans,  and  such  of  the  Eparits  as  ad- 
hered to  those  who  dreaded  being  called  to  account,  and  the 
principal  men  of  most  of  the  towns,  were  seized  and  impris- 
oned. Some  escaped  over  the  walls ;  and  the  Mantineans, 
whom  they  had  been  most  anxious  to  take,  had,  on  account 
of  the  vicinity  of  their  town,  already  gone  home.     In  the 


AFFAIRS    OF    PELOPONNESUS.  359 

morning  the  Mantineans  sent  round  to  all  the  towns,  telling 
them  what  had  occurred,  and  desiring  them  to  be  on  their 
guard  ;  and  they  sent  to  Tegea,  demanding  the  delivery  of 
those  who  had  been  seized.  The  Theban  became  alarmed, 
and  set  them  all  at  liberty,  asserting  that  he  had  been  de- 
ceived by  an  account  of  a  plan  to  betray  Tegea  to  the  La- 
cedaemonians. The  Mantineans  took  no  notice  of  what  he 
said,  but  sent  an  embassy  to  Thebes  to  accuse  him.  Epam- 
inondas, it  was  said,  replied,  that  he  had  done  far  better 
when  he  seized,  than  when  he  let  them  go ;  and  he  assured 
them  they  should  soon  see  a  Theban  army  in  Arcadia. 

The  direction  of  the  Theban  affairs  now  lay  entirely  with 
Epaminondas,  for  Pelopidas  was  no  more.  The  Thessalians, 
weary  of  the  oppression  of  the  Tagos,  had  sent  to  Thebes 
for  aid,  and  Pelopidas  gladly  seized  the  occasion  of  taking 
vengeance  on  him.  He  entered  Thessaly  at  the  head  of  7000 
men,  and  engaged  a  superior  force  led  by  the  Tagos.  Carried 
away  by  his  impetuous  desire  of  vengeance,  Pelopidas  fell ; 
but  victory  remained  with  his  troops,  and  Alexander  was 
obliged  to  submit  to  a  peace  and  alliance.  (Ol.  104,  1.) 

Epaminondas  assembled  (01.  104,  3)  an  army  of  Boeo- 
tians, Eubceans,  and  Thessalians,  (these  last  furnished  by 
Alexander  as  well  as  his  opponents,)  and  prepared  to  enter 
Peloponnesus  for  the  fourth  time.  He  expected  to  be  joined 
there  by  the  Argives,  Messenians,  and  the  Arcadians  of 
Tegea,  Megalopolis,  Asea,  and  Pallantion.  The  Arcadians 
were  joined  by  the  Elians  and  Achseans ;  they  sent  to  the 
Athenians  and  Lacedcemonians,  inviting  them  to  unite  in 
the  task  of  liberating  Peloponnesus  from  the  Thebans,  and 
aid  was  readily  promised  by  both. 

As  Corinth  was  at  peace  with  Thebes,  Epaminondas 
reached  Nemea  unimpeded.  He  stopped  there  in  hopes  of 
intercepting  the  Athenians ;  but  learning  that  they  were 
gone  by  sea  to  Laconia,  he  marched  on  to  Tegea,  where  he 
quartered  his  troops  within  the  town,  as  by  this  means  his 
plans  would  be  best  concealed  from  the  enemy,  while  he 
could  observe  all  their  motions  at  his  leisure. 


360  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

The  confederates  were  encamped  at  Mantineia,  waiting 
for  the  arrival  of  Agesilaus  and  the  Lacedaemonians,  who 
were  now  on  their  way.  Epaminondas,  finding  that  no 
town  had  declared  for  him,  while  time  was- passing  and  his 
reputation  was  endangered,  resolved  to  make  a  bold  effort. 
Agesilaus  and  his  forces  were  now  at  Pallene,  about  one 
hundred  stadia  from  Sparta,  which  was  nearly  destitute  of 
men ;  it  might  be  taken,  he  thought,  by  a  sudden  attack, 
and  such  an  event  have  the  most  important  results.  The 
Theban  general,  after  supper,  put  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
troops,  and  gave  the  word,  For  Sparta  !  The  city  would  have 
been  taken,  says  the  historian,  like  a  bird's  nest,  but  that  a 
Cretan  (perhaps  a  deserter  *)  brought  word  to  Agesilaus, 
who  led  back  his  hoplites  without  delay,  for  the  horse  and 
mercenaries  were  at  Mantineia.  When  Epaminondas  arrived, 
he  feared  to  enter  the  open  town,  where  his  numbers  would 
give  him  no  advantage,  and  his  men  might  be  slain  from 
the  tops  of  the  houses  :  he  therefore  halted  on  an  eminence 
without  the  town.  Archidamus,  at  the  head  of  not  quite 
one  hundred  men,  issued  suddenly  from  the  town,  and  fell 
on  a  part  of  the  Theban  forces.  Daunted  by  their  impet- 
uosity, the  redoubtable  Thebans  gave  way  with  some  loss : 
the  Spartans,  pursuing  too  far,  lost  a  few  men  in  their  turn ; 
they,  however,  erected  their  trophy  and  restored  the  dead, 
according  to  custom.  Epaminondas,  foiled  in  his  hopes  of 
surprising  Sparta,  and  expecting  that  the  Arcadians  would 
come  to  the  aid  of  their  allies,  in  which  case  he  would 
have  to  fight  them  and  all  the  Lacedaemonians,  returned  in 
haste  to  Tegea,  where  he  halted  his  hoplites.  He  sent  the 
horse  off  at  once  toward  Mantineia,  as  he  justly  reckoned  that 
the  Mantineans  would  be  taking  advantage  of  his  absence  to 
get  in  their  harvest,  and  that  their  cattle  and  slaves  would 
be  out  in  the  fields.  They  were  actually  in  the  midst  of 
their  harvest ;  but  a  body  of  Athenian  cavalry,  who  had  made 
a  forced  march  by" the  Isthmus  and  Cleonae,  was  now  arrived. 
The  Mantineans  implored  them  to  aid  in  protecting  their 

*  Polyb.  ix.  8,  6. 


BATTLE    OF    MANTIxNEIA.  361 

property,  and  the  Athenians,  though  just  off  a  long  journey, 
and  themselves  and  their  horses  fasting,  gallantly  sallied 
forth  to  engage  the  Thebans  and  Thessalians,  who  were 
counted  the  first  cavalry  in  Greece,  and  on  this  occasion 
were  far  superior  in  number.  The  action  was  smart,  and 
brave  men  fell  on  both  sides ;  but  the  Athenians  saved  the 
property  of  their  allies,  and  the  enemies  were  obliged  to  re- 
ceive some  of  their  dead  under  truce. 

Epaminondas  was  now  pressed  with  difficulties  ;  he  had 
failed  in  all  his  projects,  the  time  of  service  of  his  troops 
was  nearly  expired,  and  he  must  lead  them  home,  in  which 
case  his  Peloponnesian  allies  would  remain  exposed  to  their 
enemies :  a  victory  alone  could  save  him,  and  if  he  fell,  it 
would  be  with  glory,  in  the  attempt  to  make  his  country 
mistress  of  Peloponnesus.  He  ordered  his  troops  to  prepare 
for  battle.  Every  eye  grew  bright,  every  heart  beat  high  at 
the  word;  shields  were  cleansed,  helmets  polished,  swords 
and  spears  whetted.  His  influence  over  his  troops  was,  in 
fact,  surprising ;  they  shunned  neither  toil  nor  privation  : 
day  and  night  they  were  ready  to  face  any  danger  at  his 
command,  —  the  true  indication  of  a  great  general ! 

When  his  troops  were  drawn  out,  instead  of  advancing 
direct  to  the  enemy,  he  led  them  toward  the  mountains 
west  of  Tegea,  and  made  them  ground  their  arms  there. 
The  enemies,  deceived  by  this  feint,  deemed  that  he  had  no 
intention  of  fighting  that  day,  and  they  became  negligent 
of  their  order  of  battle.  Suddenly  forming  his  left  wing  of 
great  depth,  he  gave  orders  to  advance.  The  sight  of  the 
Thebans  in  motion  caused  great  confusion  in  the  enemies ; 
some  might  be  seen  putting  on  their  corselets,  others  bri- 
dling their  horses,  others  hastening  to  their  ranks,  others 
forming.  It  was  the  Theban  tactics  to  form  deep,  and  di- 
rect their  whole  force  on  one  point ;  and  Epaminondas,  now 
at  the  head  of  the  deep  phalanx  of  his  best  troops,  bore 
down  on  the  enemy's  right  wing,  composed  of  Lacedaemo- 
nians and  Mantineans,  confident  that  if  he  could  defeat 
them   the  victory  was  won.     His   cavalry   advanced,  simi- 

31  T  T 


362  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

larly  formed,  with  numerous  light  troops  (ufiiTtTtoi)  mixed 
through  it,  while  that  of  the  enemy  was  only  of  the  same 
depth  with  their  phalanx,  and  without  light  troops.  To 
prevent  the  Athenians,  who  were  on  the  left,  from  coming  to 
their  aid,  he  placed  some  horse  and  hoplites  on  the  heights 
opposite  them. 

His  measures  were  completely  successful.  The  Lacedae- 
monians and  Mantineans  gave  way  after  an  obstinate  re- 
sistance ;  but  in  the  midst  of  victory  Epaminondas  fell, 
pierced  in  the  breast  by  a  spear :  his  hoplites  paused  in  dis- 
may, and  did  not  think  of  pursuing  the  routed  enemy  ;  the 
horse,  though  victorious,  halted  and  retired;  their  light 
troops,  passing  to  the  right,  fell  on  the  Athenians,  by  whom 
they  were  cut  to  pieces.  Epaminondas  died  on  the  extrac- 
tion of  the  spear,  in  the  persuasion  of  having  obtained  a 
complete  victory.  Each  side,  however,  raised  its  trophy; 
each,  as  defeated,  claimed  its  dead,  under  truce ;  each,  as 
victorious,  restored  those  of  the  other.  The  troops  on  both 
sides  retired  to  their  respective  homes,  and  few  of  the  great 
results  which  had  been  anticipated  followed. 

It  is  said  *  that  Epaminondas,  finding  his  wound  to  be 
mortal,  called  for  Diophantus,  intending  to  give  him  the 
command  of  the  army.  He  was  told  that  he  was  dead. 
He  then  called  for  Iolai'das,  and  hearing  that  he  also  had 
fallen,  "  Make  then  peace,"  said  he,  "  for  Thebes  has  no 
longer  a  general !  "  In  fact,  the  importance  which  Thebes 
had  acquired  was  entirely  owing  to  a  few  able  men  whom 
she  possessed  ;  f  and  her  greatness,  and  even  that  of  Greece, 
was  truly  said  to  have  been  buried  in  the  grave  of  Epami- 
nondas. Xenophon  and  some  other  historians  end  their 
works  with  the  battle  of  Mantineia,  intimating,  as  it  were, 
that  Grecian  independence  was  no  more. 

t  Polybius,  xi.  43. 


LAST    DATS    OF    AGESILAUS.  363 

CHAPTER  XV. 

GENERAL    PEACE. LAST    DAYS    OF     AGESILAUS.  DEATH    OF 

ALEXANDER     OF     PHER.E. MILITARY     AFFAIRS.  LITERA- 
TURE. 

The  battle  of  Mantineia  was  followed  by  a  general  peace, 
in  which  the  Spartans  alone  were  not  included,  for  they 
haughtily  refused  to  join  in  a  treaty  to  which  the  Messe- 
nians  were  parties.  They,  however,  abstained  from  hostilities, 
and  Messene  was  lost  to  them  forever.* 

The  western  provinces  o£  the  Persian  empire  had  been  of 
late  years  in  a  state  of  complete  insubordination  :  and  in 
Egypt,  a  man  named  Tachos  had  succeeded  in  withdrawind 
a  great  part  of  the  country  from  its  obedience.  Tachos, 
who  had  in  his  pay  a  great  number  of  Grecian  mercenaries, 
sent  (Ol.  104,  3)  to  propose  an  alliance  with  Lacedaemon. 
Agesilaus,  though  now  upwards  of  eighty  years  of  age, 
gladly  seized  the  occasion  of  revenge  on  the  Persian  king, 
who  had  been  a  chief  cause  of  the  loss  of  Messene;  and  he 
hoped  to  have  yet  the  satisfaction  of  withdrawing  the  Asiatic 
Greeks  from  his  dominion.  He  took  the  command  of  one 
thousand  hoplites  sent  to  the  aid  of  Tachos,  and  the  whole 
mercenary  land  forces  were  put  under  him  on  his  arrival  in 
Egypt.  The  fleet  was  commanded  by  the  Athenian  Cha- 
brias,  who  was  in  the  pay  of  the  Egyptian  prince.  Tachos 
himself  commanded  in  chief.  He  invaded  Syria ;  but  during 
his  absence  a  rebellion  took  place  in  Egypt,  and  he  was 
deserted  by  his  army,  and  fled  to  Sidon.  The  competitors 
for  the  throne  of  Egypt  (there  were  two  of  them)  sought 
to  gain  Chabrias  and  Agesilaus;  and  Nectanebos  making 
the  better  offer,  they  joined  him,  and  seated  him  on  the 
throne.  He  rewarded  them  munificently ;  and  shortly  af- 
terwards Agesilaus,  seeing  that  there  was  nothing  of  im- 

*  Diodor.  xv.  89.     Polybius,  iv.  33. 


364  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

portance  to  effect  in  Asia,  sailed  homewards,  resolving  to 
devote  his  remaining  days  and  the  wealth  he  had  acquired, 
to  the  reduction  of  Messene.  But  he  fell  sick  at  sea,  and 
putting  into  a  port  of  the  Cyrenean  territory,  died  there. 
As  honey  could  not  be  had  at  the  time,  his  body  was  en- 
closed in  wax,  and  thus  brought  home  to  be  interred  with 
those  of  his  fathers.* 

Had  Jason  of  Pherae,  with  his  virtues  and  talents,  been  now 
living,  the  supremacy  of  Greece  might  have  fallen  to  Thes- 
saly.  But  the  present  Tagos,  Alexander,  was  such  an  odious 
tyrant,  that  the  hatred  of  him  was  universal.  He  had  reigned 
eleven  years,  when  his  wife,  irritated,  it  was  said,  at  learning 
that  it  was  his  design  to  divorce  her,  as  being  barren,  and  to 
marry  the  widow  of  Jason,  resolved  to  have  him  murdered. 
She  told  her  brothers,  Tisiphonus  and  Lycophron,  that  the 
tyrant  had  designs  against  them,  and  their  only  safety  was 
in  his  death.  She  then  concealed  them  near  her  chamber 
during  the  day.  At  night,  Alexander  came  to  her  apartment 
to  sleep  as  usual ;  he  had  drunk  a  good  deal,  and  soon  fell 
asleep  :  a  lamp  was  burning  in  the  room.  She  took  away 
his  sword,  and  went  to  call  her  brothers.  They  hesitated ; 
she  threatened  to  awake  the  tyrant ;  they  entered  the  cham- 
ber ;  she  stood  at  the  door,  and  held  the  bolt  till  the  deed  was 
done.  The  assassins  were  applauded  by  the  enemies  of  the 
tyrant,  but  they  had  only  removed  him  to  tread  in  his  steps  : 
they  retained  the  mercenaries,  and  by  their  means  continued 
to  exercise  dominion  over  Thessaly.t 

Athens  was  again  become  the  most  important  state  in 
Greece.  The  conduct  of  her  best  generals,  particularly  Ti- 
motheus,  gained  her  respect ;  and  the  people  of  the  towns 
and  coasts  of  the  ^Egean,  to  obtain  the  protection  of  her 
navy  against  piracy,  became  once  more  her  subject  allies, 
and  paid  the  tribute  imposed  by  Aristeides. 

After  the  death  of  Pericles,  the  evils  of  political  licentious- 
ness displayed  themselves  more  and  more  each  day.     The 

*  Xen.  Agesilaus,  4.     Plut.  Agesilaus,  36—40.     Diodor.  xv.  92,  93. 
t  Xen.  vi.  4.     Plut.  Pelop.  35. 


MILITARY    AFFAIRS.  365 

demagogues,  who  were  to  the  sovereign  people  what  their 
flatterers  were  to  tyrants,  heedless  of  the  public  weal,  and 
thinking  only  of  their  own  advantage,  urged  them  into  every 
excess.  The  allies  were  plundered  and  oppressed,  and  the 
persons  of  property  at  home  harassed  by  eternal  requisitions 
to  fit  out  triremes,  provide  choirs  for  the  festivals,  and  other- 
wise spend  their  money  on  the  people.*  Numbers  were 
thus  reduced  to  beggary.  They  were  further  exposed  to 
the  vexatious  persecution  of  the  Sycophants,  or  public  in- 
formers,! who  lived  by  taking  advantage  of  the  fears  of  the 
rich,  and  the  envy  and  injustice  of  the  paid  jurors.  Nothing, 
in  fact,  could  be  less  enviable  than  the  condition  of  a  man 
of  property  at  Athens,  more  especially  from  the  time  of  the 
loss  of  the  army  in  Sicily. |  It  is  probable  that  things  were 
not  much  better  in  the  other  Grecian  democracies,  of  which 
we  have  not  information ;  while  in  oligarchies  the  ruling  party 
thought  only  of  oppressing  and  keeping  down  the  people. § 

One  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  ruin  of  Greece  attained  its 
height,  though  it  clid  not  commence,  in  this  period.  This 
was  the  use  of  mercenary  troops,  or  Xeni,  (Serot,  '  strangers,') 
as  they  were  named.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  point  out  any 
period  in  the  history  of  the  world  in  which  men  did  not  sell 
their  blood  for  pay  ;  but  in  Greece,  before  the  Peloponnesian 
war,  the  practice  does  not  seem  to  have  been  common.  The 
Arcadians,  the  Swiss  of  Hellas,  owing  perhaps  to  the  poverty 
of  their   mountains,  were  the  most   addicted  to  it ;    and  we 

*  Arist.  Pol.  vi.  3. 

t  The  Sycophants  answer  to  the  Delators  under  the  Roman  Em- 
perors. 

+  The  pay  of  the  Ecclesiasts,  which  had  been  reestablished,  was 
raised  (Ol.  96,  3)  by  Agyrrhius  to  three  oboles ;  this  of  course  drew 
the  poorer  citizens  to  the  assemblies  in  great  numbers,  (see  Aristoph. 
Eccles.  302,  380,  392,  543,  and  the  Scholia,)  and  they  made  what  de- 
crees the  demagogues  pleased. 

§  "  In  some  oligarchies,"  says  Aristotle,  (Pol.  v.  7,)  "  they  swear, 
'  and  I  will  be  evil  minded  toward  the  demos,  and  counsel  all  the  ill  I 
can.'" 

31* 


366  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

read,  not  without  surprise,*  that  while  Xerxes  was  before 
Thermopylae,  Arcadians  entered  his  camp  looking  for  ser- 
vice ;  the  Cretan  archers,  likewise,  were  at  all  times  to  be 
had  for  money.  It  was,  however,  the  civil  dissension  in 
the  various  towns  of  Greece  that  chiefly  caused  the  evil. 
Men,  driven  from  their  homes,  and  robbed  of  their  property, 
had  seldom  any  resource  but  arms ;  they  usually  joined  the 
enemies  of  their  country,  in  hopes  by  their  aid  of  defeating 
the  faction  at  home  which  had  expelled  them.  Others 
were  allured  by  pay  alone,  especially  after  the  Persians 
began  to  hire  Greek  troops  :  Pissuthnes  had  Arcadians  in 
his  pay ;  f  and  from  the  time  of  the  younger  Cyrus,  the 
Persian  kings  and  satraps  maintained  large  bodies  of  Greek 
mercenaries  :  they  were  also  employed  by  the  tyrants  of 
Sicily,  and  even  by  the  Carthaginians.  Any  one  who  is 
acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  Italian  republics  of  the 
Middle  Ages  will  at  once  recognize  the  similarity  between 
their  condottieri  and  the  leaders  of  the  mercenary  bands  in 
Greece ;  and  the  history  of  Charidemus,  given  by  Demos- 
thenes,! might  well  pass  for  that  of  a  Braccio  or  a  Sforza. 
The  Brabancons,  Free  Companies,  etc.  of  France  and  Eng- 
land were  also  exactly  similar  to  the  Greek  Xeni.  In  Greece, 
as  in  modern  Italy,  the  dislike  of  all  orders  of  people  in  the 
towns  to  personal  service  led  to  the  employment  of  Xeni, 
instead  of  the  old  burgher  force  of  hoplite  militia.  The 
manners  and  morals. of  the  mercenary  troops  of  all  ages  are 
the  same  ;  the  camp  is  their  home ;  they  care  not  for  whom 
they  fight;  they  squander  in  luxury  and  sensual  pleasure 
their  pay  and  their  plunder,  thoughtless  of  the  morrow. 

During  this  period  a  considerable  change  was  made  in 
the  military  art  by  Iphicrates,  namely,  his  forming  a  new 
description  of  the  troops  called  Peltasts,  which  were  a  mean 
between  the  hoplites  and  the  light-armed.  Their  arms  and 
armor  were  similar  to  those  of  the  hoplites ;  but  their  ar- 
mor was  all    lighter,   while  their  swords  and  spears  were 

*  Herod,  viii.  26.  t  Thuc.  iii.  34.  $  Against  Aristocrates. 


LITERATURE.  367 

longer  :    hence  they  were   more  active  and  more  efficient. 
The  peltast    troops    were    always    composed  of   mercena- 


Though  this  was  a  time  of  incessant  war,  literature  did 
not  cease  to  be  cultivated.  Poetry  now  became  almost  ex- 
clusively dramatic,  and  its  chief  seat  was  Athens.  In  tra- 
gedy, Sophocles  was  distinguished  for  a  calm  and  amiable 
spirit  of  religion,  a  love  of  law  and  order,  and  high  regard 
for  moral  worth  and  dignity.  The  consummate  skill  with 
which  his  dramas  are  constructed  can  never  be  enough  ad- 
mired, and  the  sweetness  and  elegance  of  his  verses  must 
ever  inspire  delight.  Euripides,  inferior  in  genius,  sought 
to  move  by  presenting  his  characters  in  the  outward  garb  of 
woe  and  poverty,  and  by  employing  the  language  of  senti- 
mentality. The  construction  of  his  plays  offers  a  tedious 
uniformity,  and  he  is  accused  of  having  patched  up  his  cho- 
ruses (to  us  so  beautiful)  from  the  popular  songs.  He  also 
injured  his  pieces  by  the  introduction  of  the  skeptical  philos- 
ophy then  in  vogue,  and  by  scenes  of  regular  pleading  as 
in  a  court  of  law.  Many  of  his  dramas  are,  nevertheless, 
highly  beautiful ;  but  true  taste  will  rank  the  best  of  them 
much  below  those  of  ^Eschylus  and  Sophocles. 

The  ancient  comedy  was  of  a  peculiar  nature.  In  form 
it  resembled  the  tragedy,  and,  like  it,  introduced  real  char- 
acters on  the  scene ;  but  those  of  comedy  were  living  persons, 
who  were  usually  keenly  satirized  for  their  public  or  private 
vices  and  follies.  The  drama  at  Athens  was,  in  some  sort, 
what  the  public  press  is  with  us,  the  organ  of  political  par- 
ties. To  the  credit  of  the  comic  muse,  she  seems  to  have 
mostly  advocated  a  domestic  and  foreign  policy  beneficial  to 
the  state.  The  most  distinguished  writers  of  the  ancient 
comedy  were  Eupolis,  Cratinus,  and  Aristophanes. 

Eloquence  now  became  an  art,  taught  for  hire  by  Gorgias, 

*  Nepos,  from  whom  alone  we  have  a  description  of  these  peltasts, 
seems,  with  a  Roman's  usual  ignorance  of  Grecian  affairs,  to  have 
supposed  that  Iphicrates  converted  the  hoplites  into  peltasts. 


368  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Protagoras,  and  the  other  Sophists,  as  they  were  named. 
In  proportion  as  the  characters  of  citizen  and  soldier  sepa- 
rated, the  statesman  (q^tcoq)  became  divided  from  the  gen- 
eral. Historical  writing  also  was  now  cultivated ;  and  we 
have  contemporary  history  for  the  whole  of  this  period. 

Philosophy,  mostly  of  a  skeptical  character,  attracted  vo- 
taries as  the  reverence  for  the  old  religion  decreased.  But, 
in  the  hands  of  the  Sophists,  it  spent  its  energies  in  idle 
speculation  in  physics,  or  in  the  mischievous  hair-splitting  of 
dialectics.  The  illustrious  Socrates  stood  forth  as  their  de- 
clared enemy,  and  combated  them  triumphantly  with  their 
own  weapons.  Man  and  his  duties  were  the  subject  of  Ms 
philosophy :  he  taught  in  no  school,  nor  for  hire ;  his  con- 
versation (for  he  gave  no  lectures)  was  free  to  all ;  his  life 
adorned  his  doctrine,  and  was  passed  in  honorable  poverty. 
But  the  friend  of  wisdom  and  virtue,  and  the  great  master 
of  irony,  could  not  be  without  numerous  enemies  at  Athens. 
He  was  publicly  accused  (01.  95,  2)  by  Anytus,  Melitus, 
and  Lycon,  of  impiety  and  corruption  of  the  youth,  and  an 
ignorant,  credulous,  and  prejudiced  jury  passed  on  him  a  sen- 
tence of  death.  Means  of  escape  were  proposed  to  him,  but 
rejected.  On  the  appointed  day,  he  received  and  conversed 
calmly  and  cheerfully  with  his  friends,  and  then  drinking 
the  hemlock-juice  expired,  in  the  seventieth  year  of  his  age. 
The  people  were  soon  seized  with  unavailing  regret,  and 
they  made  what  atonement  they  could  by  punishing  those 
concerned  in  his  death. 


THE 


HISTORY   OF   GREECE 


PART   III. 

MONARCHIC    PERIOD. 


CHAPTER  I. 

KINGDOM     OF    MACEDONIA.  PHILIP    OF     MACEDONIA.  CON- 
FEDERATE   WAR.  PHOCIAN  OR    SACRED  WAR. PROGRESS 

OF     PHILIP.  SACRED    WAR. WAR    IN    PELOPONNESUS. 

OLYNTHIAN  WAR. 

We  denominate  this  last  period  of  Grecian  history,  the 
Monarchic,*  not  because  this  form  of  government  prevailed 
in  Greece,  but  because  we  shall  find  the  influencing  and  gui- 
ding power  in  all  its  affairs  to  have  been  a  monarchy.  Aris- 
tocracy is  at  an  end ;  democracy,  after  a  few  struggles,  sinks 
into  impotence  ;  Greece  loses  the  independence  of  which  she 
is  no  longer  deserving.  To  narrate  her  decline  is  now  our 
task.t 

Each  state  of  Greece  and  its  vicinity  was,  as  we  may  have- 
observed,  to  come  forward,  at  one  time  or  other,  as  an  im- 
portant actor  on  the  political  stage.  The  time  for  the  ap- 
pearance of  Macedonia  is  now  arrived. 

*  It  is  usually  called  the  Macedonian  Period. 

t  The  principal  authorities  for  this  and  the  following  chapter  are 
Diodorus,  (who  copied  Theopompus,)  Plutarch,  Justin,  and  the  orators 
Demosthenes  and  iEschines. 

UU 


370  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

This  country,  lying  north  of  Thessaly,  though  inhabited 
by  a  people  akin  to  the  Greeks,  was  never  counted  part  of 
Greece.  Its  kings  claimed  their  descent  from  the  Teme- 
nids,  or  Heracleids,  of  Argos,  and  as  such  were  admitted  to 
contend  at  the  Olympic  games,  from  which  all  but  Greeks 
were  excluded.  Macedonia  might  be  termed  a  constitutional 
monarchy  :  the  crown  was  hereditary  in  one  family ;  but  the 
king  was  not  absolute  ;  he  governed  by  law  and  custom  :  a 
judge  in  peace,  the  leader  of  the  army  in  war,  he  strongly 
resembled  the  monarchs  of  the  Heroic  age ;  and  the  form  of 
government  which  had  once  prevailed  over  Greece  and  the 
adjacent  countries,  and  which  we  find  in  Homer,  appears  to 
have  been  preserved,  though  somewhat  altered  and  modi- 
fied, in  Macedonia  and  Epeirus. 

The  earliest  mention  we  meet  of  Macedonia  is  at  the  time 
of  the  Persian  war,  when  we  find  its  kings  united  in  public 
friendship  with  the  Athenian  people.  It  is  probable  that  the 
intercourse  between  it  and  Athens  had  been  of  long  stand- 
ing; for  ship-timber,  an  article  indispensable  to  the  Athe- 
nians, who  had  none  of  their  own,  grew  abundantly  in  Ma- 
cedonia, whence,  down  to  the  period  of  which  we  write,  they 
constantly  imported  it.  The  Peloponnesian  war  brought  Ma- 
cedonia into  relations  with  Sparta ;  proximity  at  all  times 
produced  much  intercourse  between  it  and  Thessaly.  It 
was,  however,  always  looked  upon  as  a  power  of  little  con- 
sequence, its  people  termed  Barbarians,  and  its  friendship  or 
enmity  but  lightly  regarded  by  the  haughty  republics.    . 

After  the  death  of  Archelaus,  (Ol.  95,  2,)  an  able  and  en- 
lightened prince,  the  succession  to  the  throne  was  disputed, 
and  a  civil  war  terminated  in  favor  of  Amyntas,  cousin  to 
the  late  king.  Amyntas  dying  (Ol.  102,  3)  at  an  advanced 
age,  left  three  sons,  Alexander,  who  succeeded  him,  and 
Perdiccas  and  Philip,  both  boys.  Alexander,  after  a  short 
reign,  fell  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin.  Two  competitors 
for  the  throne  appeared ;  the  queen-mother  Eurydice  im- 
plored the  aid  of  the  Athenian  general  Iphicrates,  then  with 
a  fleet  on  the  coast  of  Thrace,  and  by  his  influence  Perdic- 


PHILIP    OF    MACEDONIA.  371 

cas  was  quietly  seated  on  the  throne.*  On  account  of  his 
youth,  the  regency  was  committed  to  Ptolemaeus,  a  prince  of 
the  blood  royal.  During  the  time  of  the  regency,  Pelopidas 
visited  Macedonia  as  ambassador  from  Thebes,  and  he  in- 
duced the  government  to  change  the  Athenian  for  the  The- 
ban  alliance. 

As  securities  for  the  good  faith  of  the  Macedonian 
government,  and  perhaps  at  the  same  time  with  a  view  to 
their  education,  the  king's  brother  Philip,  and  some  youths 
of  the  noblest  families,  were  sent  to  reside  at  Thebes. 
Philip  was  there  placed  under  the  care  of  Pammenes,  and 
the  improvement  of  his  mind  appears  to  have  been  sedulous- 
ly attended  to.t 

Perdiccas,  after  a  brief  reign,  was  slain,  (Ol.  105,  1,) 
defending  his  kingdom  against  an  invasion  of  the  Illyrians. 
The  next  heir  was  his  brother  Philip,  now  twenty-three 
years  old,  and  at  that  time  settled  in  the  government  of  a 
province  which  his  brother  had,  according  to  the  usage  of 
the  Macedonian  kings,  given  him  as  an  appanage.  But  the 
heritage  was,  to  all  appearance,  one  not  to  be  coveted. 
The  Illyrians  spread  their  ravages  over  the  country;  the 
Paeonians  invaded  it  on  the  north ;  the  two  former  competi- 
tors for  the  throne,  Argaeus  and  Pausanias,  appeared  again, 
the  one  supported  by  the  Athenians,  the  other  by  Cotys, 
king  of  Thrace. 

About  four  thousand  Macedonians  had  fallen  with  their 
king,  and  the  people  were  in  general  dejected ;  but  the  elo- 
quence of  Philip  raised  their  spirits,  and  his  talents  inspired 
them  with  confidence.  The  Illyrians,  like  barbarians  in 
general,  hastened  home  to  secure  their  plunder;  presents 
and  promises  properly  employed,  induced  the  Paeonian 
chiefs  to  abstain  from  hostilities;  in  a  similar  way  Cotys 
was  engaged  to  abandon  the  cause  of  Pausanias;  and  there 
only  remained  Argseus,  to  whose  aid  the  Athenians  had  sent 
Mantias  with  a  fleet  and  three  thousand  hoplites. 

*  JSschines,  False  Embassy,  31 ,  30,  et  seq. 
t  Plutarch,  Pelopidas,  26. 


372  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Mantias,  on  coming  to  Methone,  a  port  of  Pieria  subject 
to  Athens,  landed  his  troops ;  and  Argaeus,  at  the  head 
of  these  and  some  troops  of  his  own,  set  out  for  ^Eg33,  or 
Edessa,  the  former  capital  of  Macedonia,  distant  about  two 
hundred  and  forty  stadia.  Having  vainly  essayed  to  gain 
the  people  to  declare  for  him,  he  was  leading  back  his  troops 
to  Methone,  when  he  was  met  and  attacked  by  Philip.  Ar- 
gaeus fell,  and  with  him  a  good  number  of  his  men ;  the  rest 
retired  to  a  hill,  where  they  surrendered.  Such  Athenians 
as  were  among  them  were  treated  with  great  consideration 
by  the  victor ;  all  their  property  was  collected  and  restored 
to  them,  and  they  were  set  at  liberty.  He  sent  ministers  to 
Athens  to  treat  of  peace ;  and,  as  he  knew  that  the  chief 
cause  of  enmity  had  been  the  aid  given  to  the  people  of 
Amphipolis  by  his  brother,  he  declared  that  city  free,  and 
withdrew  its  Macedonian  garrison.  The  Athenian  people 
then  listened  to  his  proposals,  and  peace  was  concluded. 
(Ol.  105,  2.)* 

Fortunately  for  Philip,  Agis  the  king  of  the  Paeonians 
died ;  and  it  is  probable  some  confusion  arose  of  which  he 
took  advantage;  for  entering  Paeonia  with  his  army  he  over- 
came the  force  opposed  to  him,  and  reduced  the  country  to 
a  province  of  his  kingdom.  He  now  found  himself  strong 
enough  to  venture  on  war  with  the  Ulyrians ;  and  having, 
according  to  Macedonian  usage,  held  an  assembly  of  the 
people  and  gained  their  consent,  he  invaded  Illyria  at  the 
head  of  10,000  foot  and  600  horse.  The  Ulyrian  chief, 
Bardylis,  who  was  now  ninety  years  of  age,  sent  to  propose 
peace,  on  the  condition  of  each  retaining  what  they  had ; 
but  Philip  insisted  on  the  Ulyrians  restoring  the  towns  which 
they  held  in  Macedonia.  These  terms  were  refused.  Bar- 
dylis met  the  Macedonians  with  about  an  equal  force  :  a 
sanguinary  action  ensued;  but  Philip's  superior  tactic* 
gained  him  a  complete  victory,  and  the  Ulyrians  fled,  with 
the  loss  of  their  aged  chief  and  seven  thousand  men.    Peace 

*  Diodorus,  xvi.  3,  4.     Demosthenes,  ag.  Aristocrates,  6C0. 


PHILIP    OF    MACEDONIA.  373 

was  then  granted  them  on  their  giving  up  the  Macedonian 
towns;  in  consequence  of  which  the  dominions  of  Philip 
now  extended  westwards  to  Lake  Lychnitis,  and  thus  per- 
haps exceeded  in  magnitude  those  of  his  predecessors. 

These  victories  gave  Philip  great  credit  in  the  eyes  of  his 
warlike  subjects,  and  now,  (Ol.  105,  3,)  having  persuaded 
the  credulous  Athenians,  that,  when  he  had  reduced  it,  he 
would  give  it  to  them  in  exchange  for  Pydna,*  he  led  his 
forces  against  Amphipolis,  in  which  there  was  a  devoted 
Macedonian  party.  Philip  battered  the  walls  till  a  breach 
was  effected;  the  town  then  capitulated;  the  heads  of  the 
adverse  party  were  banished;  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants 
were  treated  with  great  favor,  according  to  the  humane  and 
politic  course  which  Philip  had  laid  down  for  himself  in  his 
pursuit  of  empire. 

The  Olynthians  and  the  Athenian  party  in  Amphipolis 
had  sent  to  Athens  for  aid;  but  so  strongly  were  the  people 
persuaded  that  Philip  would  give  them  the  town,  that  they 
would  not  attend  to  them. 

The  object  nearest  to  Philip's  heart  was  to  drive  the 
Athenians  from  the  north  coast  of  the  ^Egean,  where  their 
supremacy  had  been  restored  by  Conon.  For  this  purpose 
(Ol.  106,  1)  he  formed  an  alliance  with  the  Olynthians,  to 
whom  he  resigned  all  rights  to  Anthemus,  which  had  be- 
come a  member  of  their  confederacy.  Pydna  was  the  first 
object  of  their  joint  attack ;  and  a  party  in  the  town,  in  the 
Macedonian  interest,  opened  the  gates  when  Philip  appeared. 
Potidrea  was  next  invested,  and  after  an  obstinate  defence 
forced  to  surrender.  The  Athenians  there  were  dismissed 
in  safety,  and  the  town  given  to  the  Olynthians.  Methone 
alone  now  remained  to  Athens  in  these  parts. 

The  great  talents  of  Philip  were  at  all  times  seconded  by 
fortune.  The  Athenians  had  always  held  the  Macedonians 
in  contempt,  and  Persia  was  still  the  only  foreign  power  of 
which  they  had  any  apprehensions.     They  were  therefore 


*  Demosthenes  ag.  Aristocrates,  C59. 
32 


374  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

not  likely  to  view  at  any  time  the  progress  of  Philip  with 
apprehension ;  but  luckily  for  him  they  had  now  other 
matters  on  their  hands,  which  gave  them  abundant  occu- 
pation. 

Just  at  the  time  when  Philip  was  attacking  Amphipolis, 
the  Thebans  sent  a  force  into  Euboea  to  aid  a  party  there 
against  the  tyrants  of  Eretria  and  Chalcis.  These  applied 
for  aid  to  Athens:  and  such  was  the  fear  of  seeincr  that 
island  alienated,  that  at  the  impulse  of  Timotheus  a  sea  and 
land  force  was  prepared  within  five  days,  and  within  thirty 
days  the  Thebans  were  overcome  and  dismissed  under 
truce.  The  Athenian  orators  state  with  pride  that  no  at- 
tempt was  made  to  take  advantage  of  this  success,  and  that 
the  Eubceans  were  left,  as  before,  to  themselves. 

Soon  afterwards,  (Ol.  105,  4,)  a  war,  which  lasted  three 
years,  broke  out  between  Athens  and  her  allies.  The  Athe- 
nians had  not  used  their  recovered  superiority  at  sea  with  all 
the  prudence  and  moderation  which  the  altered  condition 
of  the  times  demanded,  and  the  diminished  state  of  their 
revenues  and  the  corruption  of  their  public  men  led  to  much 
oppression  and  extortion.  Mausolus,  king  of  Caria,  who 
now  aspired  to  influence  in  the  Grecian  sea  states,  took 
advantage  of  the  increasing  dissatisfaction  among  the  allies 
to  form  a  confederacy  of  the  most  powerful  among  them, 
Rhodes,  Cos,  Chios,  and  Byzantion,  to  resist  the  unjust 
demands  of  the  Athenians,  to  whom  they  declared  that  they 
would  protect  their  own  commerce,  and  would  therefore  pay 
no  more  tribute. 

The  Athenians  were  never  a  people  to  submit  quietly  to 
the  loss  of  any  of  their  real  or  even  fancied  rights.  War 
was  at  once  declared.  After  a  good  deal  of  delay,  a  fleet, 
under  Chares,  with  whom  Chabrias  was  either  joined  in 
command  or  served  as  a  trierarch,  appeared  at  Chios,  where 
a  strong  fleet  of  the  Confederates  had  now  assembled.  The 
town  was  invested  by  sea  and  land.  Chares  headed  the  land 
forces,  while  Chabrias  led  the  fleet  into  the  harbor,  where  a 
smart  conflict  ensued,  in  which  Chabrias  himself  fell,  and 


THE    CONFEDERATE    WAR.  375 

the  fleet  was  forced  to  retire  with  some  loss.  The  siege 
of  Chios  was  then  abandoned,  and  nothing  of  consequence 
undertaken  during  the  remainder  of  the  year. 

The  following  year,  (Ol.  106,  1,)  the  Confederates  put  to 
sea  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  ships :  and  as  that  of  Chares  of 
sixty  ships  was  not  able  to  oppose  them,  they  plundered 
the  isles  of  Lemnos  and  Imbros,  and  then  sailing  to  Samos 
wasted  the  country  and  laid  siege  to  the  town.  Moved  by 
the  danger  of  Samos,  the  Athenians  sent  out  (01.  106,  2) 
another  fleet  of  sixty  ships  under  Timotheiis,  Iphicrates,  and 
Menestheus,  (the  son  of  the  latter  and  son-in-law  of  the  former 
general,)  to  cooperate  with  that  of  Chares.*  Instead  of  sail- 
ing to  the  relief  of  Samos,  the  Athenian  commanders  steered 
for  the  Hellespont,  rightly  judging  that  the  Confederates 
would  not,  for  the  chance  of  taking  Samos,  risk  the  loss  of 
Byzantion,  which  was  now  without  adequate  defence.  Ac- 
cordingly, when  they  learned  whither  the  Athenians  were 
gone,  they  abandoned  Samos  and  hastened  to  the  Helles- 
pont, at  the  entrance  of  which  they  met  the  Athenian  fleet. 
The  wind,  which  was  now  strong,  was  adverse  to  the  Athe- 
nians; Chares,  however,  was  for  fighting,  but  Iphicrates  and 
Timotheiis  refused  their  consent,  and  no  action  took  place. 
Chares  wrote  home,  accusing  his  colleagues  of  treachery, 
and  the  following  year  they  had  to  answer  the  charge  be- 
fore their  sovereign,  the  people.  Iphicrates  was  acquitted, 
but  Timotheiis  was  fined  a  hundred  talents. f 

Chares  was  now-  again  sole  commander ;  but  his  troops, 
who  were  mercenaries,  would  not  serve  without  regular  pay, 
and  no  money  was  sent  out  to  him  from  home.  He  must 
therefore  have  dismissed  them,  or  have  followed  the  usual 
course  of  robbing  and  plundering  the  allies.  But  Artabazus, 
the  satrap  of  Bithynia,  who  was  in  rebellion,  hearing  that  a 
large  force  was  coming  against  him,  sent  to  endeavor  to 
induce  the  army  of  Chares  to  come  to  his  aid.     Forced  by 

*  Nepos,  Timoth.  3. 

t  Id.  ibid.  Isocrates  (Permutation,  75)  says  it  was  the  largest  fine 
ever  imposed. 


376  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

his  men,  led  by  his  own  interest,  or  deeming  it  for  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  Athenians  to  have  the  army,  which  they  could 
not  or  would  not  pay  themselves,  kept  together  for  them, 
he  entered  the  service  of  the  satrap.  The  Athenians  were 
at  first  well  pleased  at  what  he  had  done ;  but  when,  soon 
after,  Persian  envoys  came  to  complain  of  him,  and  to  in- 
form them  that  the  Phoenician  fleet  would  be  ordered  to 
join  that  of  the  Confederates,  they  began  to  ponder  on  the 
consequences.  The  king  of  Macedonia  had  extended  his 
power  very  considerably,  a  new  war  was  on  the  eve  of 
breaking  out  in  Greece,  and  no  one  could  tell  what  turn 
events  might  take  :  it  would  therefore,  they  thought,  be  ad- 
visable to  have  peace  at  the  other  side  of  the  JEgean.  The 
Confederates,  on  their  part,  were  also  desirous  of  peace  ; 
their  deputies  came  to  Athens ;  the  Athenians  renounced 
their  claims  of  sovereignty  ;  peace  was  made  ;  and  the  Con- 
federate War,  as  it  is  named,  terminated.* 

From  the  time  of  Solon,  down  to  the  present  period, 
hardly  any  mention  of  the  Amphictyonic  council  occurs  in 
Grecian  history.  The  deputies  of  the  different  states  had 
probably  continued  to  meet  at  the  vernal  and  autumnal 
equinoxes  of  each  year,  at  Pylae  and  Delphi,  and  make  regu- 
lations for  the  support  of  the  temple  and  public  worship  at 
Delphi ;  but,  owing  probably  to  the  balance  of  power  among 
Lacedaemon,  Athens,  and  Thebes,  the  three  great  states  of 
Dorian,  Ionian,  and  ^Eolian  race,  who  were  members  of  it, 
it  had  never  been  employed  for  political  purposes.  Now, 
however,  that  the  Lacedaemonians  were  depressed,  the  The- 
bans  deemed  the  occasion  good,  as  they  were  sure  of  the 
Thessalian  votes,  for  making  it  the  instrument  of  their  ven- 
geance. Deprived  of  the  wisdom  of  Epaminondas,  they 
raised  a  conflagration  in  which  their  city  and  their  indepen- 
dence were  eventually  to  perish.t 

Not  content  with  the  ample  revenge  which  they  had  had 
for  the  seizure  of  the  Cadmeia,  they  charged  the  Lacedae- 

*  Diodor.  xvi.  7,  21,  22. 
t  The  details  of  this  war  are  only  to  be  found  in  Diodorus. 


THE    SACRED    WAR.  377 

monians  before  the  Amphictyons  with  that  offence,  and  with 
the  destruction  of  some  Boeotian  towns.  A  fine  of  five  hun- 
dred talents  was  imposed  on  them ;  and  on  their  neglecting 
to  pay  it,  it  was  doubled,  according  to  Amphictyonic  law. 
It  still  however  remained  unpaid,  as  the  Amphictyons  had  no 
means  of  enforcing  their  decree.  The  Thebans  had,  there- 
fore, only  the  satisfaction  of  having  insulted  the  haughty 
Spartans. 

The  Phocians  were  another  people  to  whom  they  bore  a 
grudge ;  they  had  been  generally  on  ill  terms  with  them ; 
they  had  refused  to  take  share  in  the  last  expedition  to 
Peloponnesus ;  and  their  destruction  would  be  likely  to 
give  the  Thebans  the  command  of  the  Delphian  temple  and 
its  treasures.  To  these  public  grounds  of  enmity,  we  are 
told  a  private  one,  as  is  so  often  the  case,  was  added.  An 
heiress  in  Phocis  was  sought  in  marriage  by  a  Theban  and 
a  Phocian ;  the  latter  was  successful,  and  the  disappointed 
suitor  sought  to  kindle  a  war.  Another  account  says  the  war 
was  caused  by  a  Phocian's  abduction  of  a  Theban  lady.* 

The  charge  made  against  the  Phocians  was  that  of  having 
cultivated  the  devoted  lands  of  the  Cirrhaeans.f  An  enor- 
mous fine  was  imposed  by  the  obsequious  Amphictyons ;  and 
this  not  being  paid,  all  Phocis  was  declared  forfeit  to  the 
god.  The  Spartans  were  included  in  this  sentence,  which 
was  engraved  on  a  pillar  at  Delphi.  As  the  Amphictyons 
called  on  all  Greece  to  aid  in  carrying  their  decree  into  exe- 
cution, the  Phocians,  knowing  the  hostility  of  the  Thebans, 
Thessalians,  and  the  peoples  of  Mount  (Eta,  felt  no  little 
alarm  ;  but  Philomelus,  one  of  their  leading  men,  urged 
them  not  to  submit  tamely  to  be  deprived  of  their  country 
by  an  unjust  decree,  but  to  seize  on  Delphi,  which  by  right, 
and  the  testimony  of  Homer,  belonged  to  them,  and  to  stand 
on  their  defence.  He  pledged  himself  for  their  ultimate 
success,  if  they  would  make  him  their  general. 

The  arguments  of  Philomelus  were  of  effect,  and  he  was 

*  Arist.,  Pol.,  v.  3.     Athenseus,  xiii.  560. 
t  That  is,  the  Crissseans.     See  above,  p.  61. 
32*  vv 


378  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

appointed  general  with  unlimited  powers,  [avTOKQum^.) 
Leaving  then  his  brothers,  Onomarchus  and  Phayllus,  to 
command  in  Phocis,  he  repaired  in  person  to  Sparta,  where 
he  secretly  communicated  his  plans  to  King  Archidamus, 
showing  him  that  the  interests  of  Sparta  were  as  deeply  in- 
volved as  those  of  Phocis.  Archidamus  assented  to  all  he 
said,  but  as  he  did  not  deem  it  prudent  for  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians openly  to  make  common  cause  with  the  Phocians,  he 
would  only  aid  them  underhand  for  the  present.  He  gave 
him  fifteen  talents,  to  which  Philomelus  added  as  many  of 
his  own,  and  with  this  sum  he  hired  from  2000  to  3000  mer- 
cenaries, whom  he  led  direct  from  the  Isthmus  to  Delphi, 
and  seized  the  town  and  temple.  (Ol.  105,  4.)  The  Thra- 
cides,  (a  kind  of  Levites,)  who  attempted  resistance,  were  cut 
to  pieces,  and  their  property  confiscated ;  but  all  the  other 
inhabitants  were  assured  of  safety.  The  Ozolian  Locrians, 
who  dwelt  at  hand,  hastened  with  all  their  forces  to  the  de- 
fence of  the  temple ;  but  they  were  speedily  put  to  flight. 
Philomelus  then  effaced  the  decrees  of  the  Amphictyons,  and 
declared  that  he  had  no  intention  whatever  of  plundering 
the  temple,  his  only  objects  being  to  restore  to  the  Phocians 
the  right  of  precedence,  of  which  they  had  been  unjustly 
deprived.  He  immediately  set  about  fortifying  Delphi,  and 
augmenting  his  mercenary  force,  whose  pay  he  raised  ;  he 
also  selected  the  best  men  among  the  Phocians  for  military 
service,  and  he  had  soon  15,000  men  under  his  command. 
With  the  whole  or  a  part  of  these  he  invaded  and  ravaged 
Locris.  In  a  skirmish  with  the  Locrians,  (probably  in  the 
defiles  of  the  mountains,)  he  lost  about  twenty  of  his  men, 
and  when  he  sent  a  herald  to  claim  their  bodies,  he  was  told, 
that  it  was  the  law  of  Greece  to  leave  unburied  the  bodies 
of  temple-robbers.  Irritated  at  this  insolent  reply,  he  at- 
tacked the  Locrians,  killed  some  of  them,  and  then  forced 
them  to  exchange  the  bodies. 

On  his  return  to  Delphi,  deeming  that  an  oracle  in  his 
favor  might  be  turned  to  good  account,  he  insisted  on  the 
Pythia's  ascending  the  sacred  tripod.     At  first  she  declined ; 


THE    SACRED    WAR.  379 

but  when  he  menaced  her,  she  cried  out  that  he  might  do 
whatever  he  pleased.  This  seeming  to  him  sufficient  re- 
sponse, he  had  it  written  out  and  exposed  in  public,  to  en- 
courage the  people.  He  sent  embassies  to  Athens,  Sparta, 
Thebes,  and  all  the  chief  towns  of  Greece,  to  assure  them 
that  he  had  no  intention  of  plundering  the  temple,  and  of- 
fering to  give  an  account  of  the  treasures,  with  the  number 
and  weight  of  the  offerings,  to  any  who  should  require  it. 
He  called  on  all  to  aid,  or  at  least  not  to  act  against  them. 
The  Athenians,  the  Lacedaemonians,  and  some  few  others, 
became  open  allies  and  supporters  of  the  Phocians ;  the 
Thebans  and  their  friends  prepared  for  war  in  the  cause  of 
the  god. 

Philomelus,  seeing  war  inevitable,  augmented  his  mer- 
cenary force.  He  still,  it  is  said,  abstained  from  touching 
the  sacred  treasures;  but  he  made  the  wealthy  Delphians 
furnish  the  sums  requisite  for  the  pay  of  his  men.  In  the 
spring,  (Ol.  106,  1,)  he  invaded  Ozolian  Locris  ;  theLocrians 
came  boldly  out  against  him,  but  they  met  a  total  defeat  at 
a  place  named  the  Phaedriad  Rocks  ;  and  no  longer  hoping 
to  be  able  to  withstand  the  Phocians,  they  sent  to  the  Boeo- 
tians, imploring  them  to  come  to  their  aid  and  that  of  the 
god.  The  Boeotians  sent  to  the  Thessalians  and  the  other 
Amphictyons,  and  all  joined  in  a  declaration  of  war  against 
the  Phocians  as  temple-robbers.     (Ol.  106,  2.) 

While  the  Boeotians  and  their  allies  were  collecting  their 
forces,  Philomelus  again  led  his  troops  into  Locris.  A  body 
of  Boeotians  came  to  the  aid  of  the  Locrians,  and  a  skirmish 
of  cavalry  ensued,  in  which  the  Phocians  had  the  advantage ; 
and  soon  after  they  defeated  six  thousand  Thessalians,  who 
were  on  their  way  to  Locris.  The  Boeotians  now  took  the 
field  with  a  force  of  thirteen  thousand  men ;  that  of  Philo- 
melus somewhat  exceeded  ten  thousand,  and  he  was  joined 
by  fifteen  hundred  Achaeans,  so  that  he  felt  himself  strong 
enough  to  offer  them  battle.  No  action  took  place  as  yet; 
but  the  Boeotians,  happening  to  make  prisoners  several  of 
the  Phocian  mercenaries,  as  they  were  out  foraging,  put 
them  publicly  to  death,  as  accomplices  in  sacrilege.     This 


380  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

conduct  enraged  the  remainder  of  the  mercenaries;  they 
required  of  Philomelus  to  retaliate,  and,  exerting  themselves 
to  the  utmost,  they  took  a  great  many  of  the  enemy  prisoners, 
all  of  whom  were  put  to  death.  This  made  the  self-styled 
army  of  the  god  cease  from  their  arrogant  cruelty.  Soon 
after,  the  advance-guards  of  the  two  armies,  as  they  were 
moving  their  quarters,  encountering  by  accident  in  a  rugged 
and  woody  country,  an  action  followed,  in  which  the  Pho- 
cians,  who  were  much  inferior  in  numbers,  were  defeated 
with  great  slaughter.  Philomelus  fought  with  desperation, 
and  received  several  wounds ;  at  length,  having  ascended  a 
precipice,  and  seeing  no  chance  of  escape,  he  flung  himself 
down,  rather  than  become  a  captive  to  his  inveterate  foes. 

The  Boeotians  appear  to  have  returned  home  without 
making  any  use  of  their  victory,  probably  in  consequence  of 
the  near  approach  of  winter.  A  general  council  of  the  Pho- 
cians  and  their  allies  met  at  Delphi,  to  deliberate  on  the 
subject  of  the  war  :  a  part  of  those  present  were  for  trying 
to  make  peace,  but  the  great  majority  declared  for  continuing 
the  war.  Onomarchus  was  appointed  general  (Ol.  106,  3) 
in  the  room  of  his  late  brother  ;  it  was  resolved  to  prosecute 
the  war  with  vigor,  and  additional  mercenaries  were  taken 
into  pay. 

It  is  a  matter  of  doubt  whether  Philomelus  had  used  any 
part  of  the  sacred  treasures  or  not ;  but  we  are  assured  that 
Onomarchus  felt  no  scruples  on  the  subject,  and  that  he 
employed  the  stores  of  brass  and  iron  in  the  manufacture 
of  arms,  and  coined  a  large  quantity  of  the  gold  and  silver 
to  pay  his  troops  and  to  bribe  the  leading  persons  in  the 
various  states  of  Greece.  Resuming  the  war,  he  invaded 
Epicnemidian  Locris,  and  took  Thronion,  its  chief  town  : 
he  reduced  Amphissa,  in  Ozolian  Locris,  ravaged  the  lands 
and  villages  of  Doris,  and  then  making  an  irruption  into 
Baeotia,  took  Orchomenus,  and  laid  siege  to  Chaeroneia;  he 
was  here,  however,  defeated  by  the  Thebans,  and  forced  to 
retire. 

It  is  rather  remarkable,  that  at.  the  very  time  (Ol.  106,  3) 
when  the  Thebans  were  thus  at  war  with  the  Phocians,  and 


PROGRESS    OF    PHILIP.  381 

even  hard  pressed  by  them,  they  sent  an  army  out  to  Asia. 
Artabazus,  having  lost  the  aid  of  Chares  and  his  troops,  who 
had  been  recalled,  applied  to  the  Thebans  for  a  force  to 
support  him  against  the  royal  army.  Service  in  Asia  was 
now  become  extremely  popular  in  Greece,  and  probably  the 
satrap  had  given  money  in  the  proper  quarters ;  aid  was 
therefore  voted  at  once,  and  Pammenes,  the  friend  of  Epam- 
inondas,  led  five  thousand  men  by  sea  to  Asia.  Thus  re- 
enforced,  Artabazus  gave  the  satraps  two  great  defeats, 
whence  fame  and  profit  accrued  to  the  Boeotian  troops  and 
their  leader. 

We  must  now  return  to  the  enterprising  king  of  Mace- 
donia. After  the  reduction  of  Potidsea,  he  led  his  troops 
against  Cotys,  king  of  Thrace.  This  prince,  famed  in  the 
annals  of  gluttony,  fled  in  terror  before  him,  and  Philip  pen- 
etrated to  the  groves  of  Onocarsis,  the  chief  scene  of  the 
Thracian's  luxurious  enjoyments.  Near  them  lay  the  gold 
mines  of  Pangneus  and  the  town  of  Crenidoe,  of  which  he  took 
possession.  He  named  the  town  from  himself,  Philippi,  and 
he  peopled  it  with  Greeks  from  Pydna  and  the  other  con- 
quered towns.  He  personally  inspected  the  mines,  and  by 
an  improved  mode  of  working  made  them  produce  one  thou- 
sand talents  a  year,  which  when  coined  into  Philips  drew 
mercenaries  to  his  standard  and  bribed  the  venal  orators  of 
the  Grecian  republics. 

The  Aleuads  of  Thessaly,  galled  by  the  insolence  and 
oppression  of  the  tyrants  of  Pherge,  applied  for  aid  to  Philip, 
as  their  ancient  ally.  He  came  gladly  ;  the  troops  of  the 
tyrants  fled  before  him,  and  the  independence  of  the  towns 
was  restored.  In  their  gratitude  they  ceded  to  him  the  right 
of  collecting  and  appropriating  their  tolls  and  customs.  He 
at  this  time  further  strengthened  himself  by  a  marriage 
with  Olympias,  sister  of  Arrhibas,  king  of  the  Molossians 
in  Epeirus. 

The  next  year,  (01.  106,  1,)  the  Ulyrians,  Paeonians,  and 
Thracians  simultaneously  took  up  arms  against  the  king  of 
Macedonia.     Philip  sent  a  part  of  his  troops,  under  Parme- 


382  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

nion,  one  of  his  ablest  officers,  against  the  Illyrians  ;  he  him- 
self engaged  and  speedily  reduced  the  Paeonians,  and  the  dis- 
cord which  prevailed  among  the  princes  of  Thrace  enabled 
him  to  add  a  large  part  of  that  country  to  his  dominions. 
By  those  writers  who  study  effect  more  than  accuracy  we 
are  told,  that  he  received  in  one  day  tidings  of  a  decisive 
victory  gained  by  Parmenion,  of  a  race  won  by  his  horse  at 
the  Olympic  games,  and  of  the  birth  of  his  son  Alexander 
the  Great. 

Cotys,  king  of  Thrace,  having  been  assassinated  by  two 
citizens  of  ^Enos,  Python  and  Heracleides,*  his  dominions 
were  disputed  by  his  son  Kersobleptes,  and  two  princes 
named  Amadocus  and  Berisades.  The  Athenians,  taking 
advantage  of  these  civil  dissensions,  sent  out  successively 
Athenodotus,  Chabrias,  and  Chares,  and  succeeded  in  regain- 
ing the  Chersonese,  which  Cotys  had  joined  to  his  domin- 
ions. Philip,  having  made  some  ineffectual  efforts  to  get  a 
footing  in  the  Chersonese,  forced  Kersobleptes  to  cede  him 
the  region  north  of  it ;  and  as  the  people  of  Cardia  (a  town 
at  its  neck)  were  not  ceded  to  the  Athenians,  he  took  care 
to  keep  up  the  ill-will  which  they  felt  towards  the  Athenian 
colonists  who  were  now  (Ol.  106,  1 — 4)  sent  out  to  the 
Chersonese. 

The  Athenians  were  justly  provoked  at  Philip's  encroach- 
ments, and  in  conjunction  with  the  people  of  Methone  they 
began  to  exercise  hostilities  against  Macedonia.  But  Philip 
suddenly  appeared  before  Methone:  the  inhabitants  made 
an  obstinate  defence,  but  at  length  were  forced  to  surrender : 
they  were  allowed  to  depart,  each  with  a  single  garment ; 
the  town  was  levelled,  the  lands  distributed  among  the  Ma- 
cedonians. During  this  siege  Philip  received  a  wound  from 
an  arrow,  which  deprived  him  of  the  sight  of  his  left  eye.t 
(Ol.  106,  4.) 

*  Demosth.  Aristocr.  659.  Aristotle  (Pol.  v.  8)  calls  the  former 
Pyrrhon  or  Parrhon  ;  he  says  they  slew  Cotys  to  avenge  their  father. 

t  An  archer,  it  is  said,  named  Aster,  whose  proffered  services  Philip 
had  rejected  with  mockery,  shot  at  him  an  arrow  with  '  For  Philip's 


THE    SACRED    WAR.  383 

The  power  of  Lycophron  and  Peitholaus,  the  tyrants  of 
Pherse,  in  consequence,  probably,  of  the  sudsidies  which  they 
drew  from  Phocis,  having  again  become  formidable  to  the 
adverse  party  in  Thessaly,  they  applied  to  Philip,  who  once 
more  entered  the  country.  (Ol.  107,  1.)  Lycophron  also 
called  on  his  allies,  andPhayllus,  the  brother  of  Onomarchus, 
led  seven  thousand  men  to  his  aid.  A  battle  ensued,  in 
which  theTagos  and  his  allies  were  defeated.  Onomarchus, 
aware  of  the  danger  of  the  union  of  the  Thessalian  and  Ma- 
cedonian power,  marched  without  delay  his  entire  force  into 
Thessaly.  Having  the  superiority  of  numbers,  he  gave 
Philip  two  complete  defeats,  who  was  with  difficulty  able 
to  effect  a  retreat  into  Macedonia.  Having  thus  reestab- 
lished the  authority  of  the  Tagos,  Onomarchus  led  his  troops 
back  to  Baeotia,  where  he  defeated  the  Boeotians  and  took 
the  town  of  Coroneia.  But  Philip,  equally  aware  of  the  im- 
portance of  Thessaly,  had  returned  with  a  new  army.  Lyc- 
ophron sent  to  recall  the  Phocian  chief,  and  Onomarchus 
passed  Thermopylae  with  twenty  thousand  foot  and  five  hun- 
dred horse.  The  united  forces  of  Philip  and  the  Thessalians 
were  upwards  of  twenty  thousand  foot  and  three  thousand 
horse.  A  battle  was  fought  near  the  Bay  of  Pagasae,  where 
an  Athenian  fleet,  under  Chares,  was  at  that  time  lying.  Ow- 
ing chiefly  to  his  superiority  in  cavalry,  the  victory  remained 
with  Philip.  The  Thessalian  horse  cutting  off  retreat,  the 
troops  of  Onomarchus  flung  away  their  armor,  and  cast 
themselves  into  the  sea,  to  swim  to  the  Athenian  ships. 
Some  were  slain,  others  drowned  :  the  entire  loss  was  six 
thousand  men,  among  whom  was  Onomarchus  himself,  and 
three  thousand  prisoners,  whom  Philip,  it  is  said,  drowned  as 
being  sacrilegious.  It  is  also  said  that  he  hung  Onomarchus' 
body  on  a  gibbet. 

The  first  use  which  Philip  made  of  his  victory  was  to  lead 


right  eye  '  upon  it.  Philip  had  it  shot  back,  with  •  If  Philip  takes  the 
town,  he  will  hang  Aster  '  on  it  as  a  reply,  and  he  kept  his  word.  The 
anecdote  is  utterly  unworthy  of  credit. 


334  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

his  forces  to  Pherae.  Lycophron  and  Peitholaus  surrendered 
the  city,  and  retired  to  Phocis.  Having  thus  won  the  hearts 
of  the  Thessalians  by  suppressing  the  tyranny,  he  prepared 
to  pass  Pylae,  and  carry  the  war  into  the  valleys  of  Phocis. 
But  an  Athenian  force,  under  Diophantus,  had  been  sent  off 
to  occupy  the  pass ;  and  Philip,  either  fearful  of  not  being 
able  to  force  it,  or  deeming  the  time  not  to  be  yet  come  for 
his  interference  in  Southern  Greece,  retired  on  Diophantus' 
refusal  of  a  passage.  Pherae,  Pagasae,  and  other  places  were 
now  in  his  possession,  and  he  was  become  the  real  head  of 
the  Thessalian  confederacy. 

Phayllus  now  occupied  the  place  of  his  brothers;  the  Del- 
phian treasures  were  not  yet  exhausted ;  new  bands  of  merce- 
naries were  hired ;  aid  came  from  the  allies ;  the  Laedaemo- 
nians  sent  1000,  the  Achaeans  2000  soldiers  ;  the  Athenians 
5000  foot  and  400  horse ;  Lycophron  had  brought  with  him 
from  Pherae  2000  mercenaries ;  several  of  the  smaller  states 
also  gave  their  aid.  With  this  force  Phayllus  invaded  Bceo- 
tia;  but  without  success,  receiving  three  successive  checks  at 
Orchomenus,  on  the  Cephissus,  and  at  Coroneia.  Quitting 
Bceotia,  he  suddenly  entered  the  Epicnemidian  Locris,  and 
took  several  towns.  At  one,  named  Aryca,  a  friendly  party 
admitted  his  troops  by  night;  but  the  rest  of  the  people  rose 
and  drove  them  out,  with  the  loss  of  two  hundred  men. 
While  he  was  besieging  Abae,  the  principal  town,  the  Boeo- 
tians came,  and  falling  on  him  by  night,  killed  a  good  many 
of  his  men.  They  then  entered  and  ravaged  Phocis,  and  re- 
turning to  Locris,  attempted  to  relieve  the  Arycaeans,  who 
were  besieged ;  but  Phayllus  came  up,  defeated  them,  and 
took  and  levelled  the  town.  This  was  his  last  exploit ;  he 
died  soon  after  of  a  disease  with  which  he  had  been  for  some 
time  afflicted,  —  the  punishment  of  his  impiety,  according  to 
his  enemies,  — leaving  as  his  successor  Phalaecus,  the  son  of 
Onomarchus ;  and  as  he  was  but  a  youth,  he  appointed  Mna- 
seas,  one  of  his  friends,  to  be  his  guardian  and  general.  Mna- 
seas,  however,  fell  shortly  afterwards  in  a  night  assault  of  the 
Boeotians ;  and  Phalaecus,  then  assuming  the  command,  sue- 


WAR    IN    PELOPONNESUS.  385 

cessively  took  and  lost  Chaeroneia,  and  the  Boeotians  entered 
and  ravaged  a  great  part  of  Phocis. 

The  loss  of  Messene  had  utterly  enfeebled  Lacedaemon, 
and  its  recovery  alone  could  restore  her  to  her  former  con- 
sequence ;  but  so  long  as  Megalopolis  existed  on  her  north- 
ern frontier  it  was  unsafe  to  attack  Messene.  The  Lace- 
daemonian government  proceeded,  with  much  art,  to  repre- 
sent that  every  state  should  be  put  into  its  former  condition  ; 
that  Triphylia  should  be  restored  to  the  Eleians,  Tricaranon 
to  the  Phliasians,  Oropus  to  the  Athenians  ;  and  those  who 
had  been  forced  to  quit  their  lands  and  villages  to  become 
inhabitants  of  Megalopolis,  be  allowed  to  return  to  them. 
The  party  in  power  at  Megalopolis,  seeing  themselves 
menaced  with  invasion  from  Laconia,  sent  to  call  on  their 
friends  for  aid  ;  and  as  it  was  of  great  importance  for  both 
sides  to  gain  the  Athenians,  embassies  from  both  Sparta  and 
Megalopolis  arrived  at  Athens.  On  this  occasion  Demos- 
thenes,  afterwards  so  renowned,  made  one  of  his  earliest 
speeches,  in  which  he  first  developed  the  principle  which  ever 
after  guided  his  policy,  namely,  that  it  was  the  interest  of 
Athens,  aiming  as  she  did  at  the  supremacy  in  Greece,  to 
maintain  a  balance  of  power  among  the  other  states.  He 
therefore  advised  to  aid  the  Megalopolitans  in  case  the  La- 
cedaemonians should  attack  them,  as,  if  that  impediment  were 
removed,  they  might  recover  their  former  power  and  become 
as  formidable  as  ever. 

We  are  not  informed  what  the  resolve  of  the  Athenian 
people  was  ;  but  the  Spartan  king,  Archidamus,  at  the  head 
of  a  Lacedaemonian  army,  and  three  thousand  foot  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty  horse  of  the  Phocian  mercenaries,  entered 
and  ravaged  the  lands  of  the  Megalopolitans.  The  Argives, 
Sicyonians,  and  Messenians  hastened  to  the  aid  of  their  allies, 
and  four  thousand  foot  and  five  hundred  horse  came  from 
Thebes.  The  Confederates  encamped  at  the  sources  of  the 
Alpheus,  the  Lacedaemonians  at  Mantineia,  whence  they 
went  and  laid  siege  to  Orneae,  in  the  Argive  territory,  and 
defeated  the  Argives,  who  ventured  to  engage  them.  The 
33  ww 


386  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Thebans  now  came  up,  and  a  severe  conflict  ensued  ;  but 
though  the  Confederates  were  double  the  number  of  the 
Lacedaemonians,  the  action,  owing  to  their  inferiority  in 
discipline,  was  indecisive.  After  the  battle  the  Argives  and 
the  other  Peloponnesians  separated,  and  went  home;  and 
Archidamus,  having  made  an  irruption  into  Arcadia,  and 
taken  and  plundered  the  town  of  Elissus,  led  his  troops 
back  to  Sparta.  When  the  Confederates  reassembled,  an 
action  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Lacedaemonians,  whose 
general,  Anaxander,  was  made  prisoner,  was  fought  at  Tel- 
phusa.  The  Confederates  were  successful  in  two  other  en- 
gagements; but  at  length  the  Lacedaemonians  gave  them  a 
complete  defeat.  A  truce  followed,  and  the  Thebans  re- 
turned home. 

To  obtain  a  footing  in  Eubcea,  Philip  saw,  would  be  of 
the  utmost  advantage  to  him  in  a  contest  with  Athens.  He 
had,  it  would  appear,  at  this  time  contrived  to  introduce 
some  of  his  troops  into  it;  and  Plutarchus  of  Eretria, 
fearing  to  lose  his  power,  sent  (Ol.  107,  3)  to  call  on  the 
Athenians  to  save  the  island.  The  people  were  always 
sensitive  on  this  point;  Demosthenes  alone  opposed  what 
he  called  "  an  inglorious  and  expensive  war."  Aid  was 
voted,  and  a  small  force  under  Phocion  sent  thither.  But 
the  Eubceans  soon  grew  suspicious  of  their  allies,  and  Pho- 
cion found  treachery  every  where  :  he  advanced,  however, 
and  took  a  station  on  a  hill  near  Tamynae.  Callias  and 
Taurosthenes  of  Chalcis  assembled  what  forces  they  could, 
and  joining  with  them  the  Macedonians  and  a  body  of  the 
Phocian  mercenaries,  came  and  surrounded  them.  As  the 
enemy  advanced,  Phocion  directed  his  men  to  remain  steady 
till  he  had  sacrificed.  As  he  was  a  long  time  about  this 
duty,  Plutarchus,  affecting  to  ascribe  his  delay  to  cowardice, 
charged  with  his  mercenaries ;  the  Athenian  horse  followed, 
without  any  order  :  they  were  repulsed,  and  Plutarchus  ran 
away.  The  enemies  advanced  to  their  rampart,  and  began 
to  pull  it  down.  Phocion,  directing  the  phalanx  to  re- 
main steady  and  receive  the  fugitives,  attacked  the  enemy 


THE    OLYNTHIAN    WAR.  387 

at  the  head  of  a  body  of  select  troops;  Cleophanes  rallied 
the  horse,  and  a  complete  victory  was  gained.  Phocion 
then  drove  Plutarchus  from  Eretria  for  his  treachery  ;  and 
having  taken  the  fortress  of  Zaretra,  he  let  go  those  who 
were  in  it,  lest  the  orators  should  excite  the  people  to  some 
act  of  cruelty.*  Having  settled  the  affairs  of  Eubcea,  he 
returned  home.  His  successor,  Molossus,  let  himself  be 
beaten  and  made  a  prisoner  :  the  Macedonian  influence  was 
restored,  and  the  predictions  of  Demosthenes  were  verified. 

The  ambitious  projects  of  Philip  now  began  to  cause  ap- 
prehensions to  his  Olynthian  allies,  whose  commerce  also 
suffered  from  the  Athenian  privateers :  they  therefore  pro- 
posed a  peace  to  the  Athenians,  which  was  accepted.  Philip, 
who  was  then  in  Thrace,  where  he  had  a  severe  illness,  sent, 
with  his  usual  policy,  to  remonstrate  and  complain  ;  but  as 
soon  as  he  recovered,  he  appeared  with  his  army  in  Chal- 
cidice.  (01.  107,  4.)  The  Olynthians  immediately  sent  to 
Athens  to  propose  an  alliance,  and  solicit  aid.  The  powerful 
eloquence  of  Demosthenes  was  exerted  in  their  favor ;  the 
alliance  was  accepted,  and  Chares  sent  off  with  two  thou- 
sand mercenaries.  He  landed  in  Pallene,  where  he  met 
and  defeated  a  body  of  eight  hundred  men  led  by  one  Au- 
daeus ;  and  he  then  returned  home  to  boast  of  his  victory, 
and,  in  his  usual  way,  gain  the  rabble  by  banquets.  The 
Olynthians,  however,  the  next  year,  (01.  108,  1,)  being  hard 
pressed  by  Philip,  sent  again  to  Athens  ;  and  Charidemus 
was  despatched  with  four  thousand  peltasts  and  other  light 
troops,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  horse.  These,  united 
with  the  Olynthians,  invaded  and  ravaged  Pallene  and  Bot- 
tiaea;  but  when  they  retired,  Philip  entered  Chalcidice, 
where  he  took  and  razed  the  fortress  of  Zeira,  and  forced 
several  other  towns  to  submit.  The  affairs  of  Thessaly, 
where  Peitholaus  had  recovered  his  authority  in  Pherae, 
then  calling  him   away,  he  went  thither  and  expelled  hira. 

*  Plutarch,  Phocion,  13.  The  reason  probahly  belongs  to  the  biog- 
rapher, who  was  thinking  of  the  Cleons  of  former  days  ;  for  the  lead- 
ing orators  of  both  parties  now  were  by  no  means  sanguinary  men. 


383  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

The  Olynthians  had  meantime  again  called  on  their  Athe- 
nian allies;  and  the  necessity  of  the  case  was  now  so  evi- 
dent, that  in  spite  of  their  aversion  to  personal  service  in 
war,  two  thousand  hoplites  and  three  hundred  horse,  all 
Athenian  citizens,  embarked  for  Chalcidice.  Philip,  who 
had  gained  the  towns  of  Mecyberna  and  Torone  by  treach- 
ery, now  led  his  forces  against  Olynthus  itself.  When 
within  forty  stadia  of  the  city,  he  sent  to  say  that  they  must 
quit  Olynthus,  or  he  Macedonia.  The  Olynthians  and  their 
Athenian  allies  gave  him  battle  twice,  but  were  defeated; 
and  a  body  of  five  hundred  Olynthian  cavalry  were  betrayed 
into  his  hands  by  their  own  commanders.  Lasthenes  and 
his  associates,  the  hirelings  of  Philip,  got  the  direction  of 
afFairs,  and  they  lost  no  time  in  delivering  up  the  city. 
Philip  treated  it  with  unwonted  rigor;  the  town  was  plun- 
dered, and  the  inhabitants  sold  into  slavery.  The  same  was 
the  fate  of  Apollonia  and  thirty-two  other  towns  of  Chal- 
cidice and  the  coast  of  Thrace.* 

Philip  testified  his  joy  at  the  conquest  of  Olynthus  by 
celebrating  with  great  splendor  the  Olympia,  a  national  feast 
of  the  Macedonians,  at  Dion.  (Ol.  108,  2.)  The  concourse 
of  strangers  was  great,  and  artists  of  every  kind  were  pres- 
ent from  all  parts  of  Greece.  Among  these  was  Satyrus, 
a  celebrated  comedian.  Philip,  always  liberal,  distributed 
numerous  presents  at  the  banquet  which  he  held,  and  ob- 
serving that  Satyrus  asked  for  nothing,  he  inquired  the  cause. 
He  replied,  that  what  he  would  ask  was  easy  for  Philip  to 
grant,  but  he  doubted  if  he  would  do  so.  The  king  averred 
that  he  would  refuse  him  nothing;  the  noble-minded  player 
then  said  that  he  had  had  a  friend  at  Pydna,  named  Apol- 
lophanes,  who  was  murdered,  and  whose  daughters  were 
removed,  by  their  friends,  for  safety  to  Olynthus,  where,  on 
the  taking  of  the  city,  they  were  made  slaves;  they  were 
now  in  Philip's  possession,  and  he  prayed  him  to  give  them 
to  him,  adding  that  it  was  his  intention  to  portion  them  and 

*  Demosth.,  False  Embassy,  426. 


PEACE    BETWEEN    PHILIP    AND    THE    ATHENIANS.    389 

marry  them  reputably.  A  tumult  of  approbation  burst  forth 
among  the  guests,  and  Philip,  though  Apollophanes  had  been 
one  of  those  who  murdered  his  brother  Alexander,  moved 
by  the  generosity  of  Satyrus  and  by  regard  for  those  present, 
granted  his  request.  Very  different  from  the  conduct  of 
Satyrus  was  that  of  the  ambassadors  of  some  Grecian  re- 
publics, who  received  as  presents  from  Philip  unfortunate 
Olynthian  women  and  children  for  slaves  !  * 


CHAPTER  II. 

PEACE  BETWEEN  PHILIP  AND  THE  ATHENIANS. END  OF  THE 

SACRED  WAR. ATHENIAN  STATESMEN. SIEGE  OF  PERIN- 

THUS  AND     BYZANTIUM. AMPHISSIAN     OR     THIRD    SACRED 

WAR. BATTLE    OF    CHJERONEIA. DEATH  OF  PHILIP. 

Philip  and  the  Athenians  were  now  equally  anxious  for 
peace.  The  commerce  of  both  suffered  from  each  other's 
privateers,  for  Philip  now  had  shipping  which  had  made 
descents  on  Lemnos  and  Imbros,  taken  rich  merchantmen 
from  Euboea,  and  even  landed  at  Marathon,  and  carried  off 
the  Salaminian  trireme.  His  influence  in  Thebes,  Eubcea, 
Megara,  and  Peloponnesus  caused  the  Athenians  much  ap- 
prehension, for  they  found  their  embassies  every  where  de- 
feated by  the  orators  whom  his  gold  had  purchased. 

Some  Eubcean  ambassadors,  coming  to  Athens  to  treat  of 
peace,  stated  that  they  were  authorized  by  Philip  to  say  that 

*  Demosth.,  False  Embassy,  401.  jEschines,  as  he  was  returning 
from  an  embassy  to  Arcadia,  met  the  Arcadian  ambassadors  with  a 
train  of  Olynthian  women  and  children  whom  Philip  had  given  them, 
(Demosth.,  ibid.  439:)  Philocrates  brought  Olynthian  women  to 
Athens,  (ibid.  440.)  Yet  Mitford  says,  "  Support  wholly  fails  among 
the  orators  of  the  day  for  the  report  of  the  annalist  of  three  centuries 
after,  that  he  plundered  the  town,  and  sold  the  inhabitants  for  slaves." 

33* 


390  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

he  also  was  desirous  of  peace.*  Soon  after,  an  Athenian 
named  Phrynon,  being  taken  by  one  of  Philip's  cruisers 
during  the  truce  of  the  Olympic  Games,  (Ol.  108,  1,)  and 
being  ransomed,  requested  the  people  to  appoint  him  an 
ambassador  to  Philip,  that  he  might  try  to  get  back  his 
ransom.  The  people  appointed  him  and  Ctesiphon,  (Ol. 
108,  3 ; )  and  the  latter  on  his  return  speaking  highly  of 
Philip,  and  his  desire  of  peace,  leave  was  granted,  on  the 
motion  of  Philocrates,  for  Philip  to  send  heralds  and  an 
embassy  to  treat  of  peace.  As  there  had  been  a  decree 
prohibiting  all  intercourse  with  Philip,  Philocrates  was 
accused  of  a  breach  of  law;  but  Demosthenes  defended 
him,  and  he  was  triumphantly  acquitted. 

Several  Athenians  had  been  made  prisoners  at  Olynthus, 
among  whom  were  two  persons  named  Stratocles  and  Eu- 
crates,  whose  relatives  implored  the  people  to  interfere  in 
their  favor  ;  and  Aristodemus,  the  player,  was  sent  to  Philip, 
with  whom  he  was  a  great  favorite,  for  this  purpose.  Philip 
released  Stratocles  at  once  without  ransom,  who  on  his 
return  declared  that  monarch's  anxiety  for  peace,  to  which 
Aristodemus  added,  that  he  even  wished  to  become  the  ally 
of  the  city.  It  was  then  decreed,  on  the  motion  of  Philoc- 
rates, that  an  embassy  of  ten  persons  should  be  sent  to 
Philip ;  and  Philocrates,  Demosthenes,  ^Eschines,  and  Aris- 
todemus were  among  those  appointed. 

The  chief  objects  proposed,  besides  the  security  of  the 
Athenian  dominions,  were  to  prevent  Philip  from  interfering 
in  Euboaa,  to  save  Kersobleptes,  and  to  have  the  Phocians 
included  in  the  peace.  The  ambassadors  were  received 
by  Philip  with  the  utmost  courtesy;  he  was  particularly 
attentive  to  iEschines  and  Philocrates ;  and  if  Demosthenes 
is  to  be  believed,  (and  there  surely  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
him,)  he  secured  their  cooperation  in  his  projects  by 
bribes.t     He  then  dismissed  them  with  the  heads  of  a  treaty 

*  All  these  transactions  are  related  by  jEschines,  (False  Embassy, 
29,  30.) 

t  Demosthenes  (False  Embassy,  380)  specifies  the  value  of  the  lands 


PEACE    BETWEEN    PHILIP    AND    THE    ATHENIANS.    391 

in  which  the  Phocians  were  not  included ;  but  iEschines 
assured  the  people  that  Philip  had  told  him  in  private  that 
he  was  obliged  to  keep  measures  with  the  Thebans,  but  that 
his  real  intentions  were  to  save  the  Phocians,  and  to  force 
the  Thebans,  as  having  been  the  real  authors  of  the  sacri- 
lege, to  make  good  the  deficiency  in  the  sacred  treasures. 
Meantime  Philip  pursued  his  conquests  in  Thrace ;  and  he 
sent  Parmenion,  Antipater,  and  Eurylochus  as  his  ministers 
to  Athens  to  conclude  the  peace ;  his  hirelings  there  being 
pledged  to  forward  his  views  as  much  as  possible.  Demos- 
thenes himself,  for  the  honor  of  his  country,  entertained 
these  ambassadors  in  a  very  splendid  manner,  and  showed 
them  every  attention  while  they  staid.  Peace  and  alliance 
with  Philip  were  concluded;  and  Demosthenes  immediately 
had  a  decree  passed  that  Proxenus,  who  commanded  a  fleet 
off  Eubcea,  should  convey  the  ambassadors  appointed  to 
receive  Philip's  ratification  of  the  treaty  (two  of  whom  were 
himself  and  iEschines)  to  wherever  Philip  might  be  at  the 
time;  for  he  well  knew  that  any  conquests  he  might  make 
in  the  interval  would  be  so  much  clear  gain  to  him,  as  the 
Athenians  would  never  renew  the  war  for  the  sake  of  them. 
But  the  views  of  iEschines  and  his  friends  were  different; 
they  were,  to  make  as  much  delay  as  possible;  they  there- 
fore would  not  take  any  short  way ;  they  spent  twenty-three 
days  going  round  by  Thessaly,  and  then  would  stay  at  Pella 
to  wait  for  Philip ;  thus  giving  him,  in  all,  nearly  three 
months  to  prosecute  his  conquests;  during  which  time  he 
forced  Kersobleptes,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the  peninsula 
of  Mount  Athos,  to  submit ;  so  that  there  could  be  now  no 
question  othim  in  the  treaty.  He  had  also  reduced  Doris- 
cus,  Serrion,  the  Sacred  Hill,  and  other  places  in  Thrace, 
which  were  now  all  resigned  to  him ;  and  when  the  author- 
ity of  the  Athenians  was  acknowledged  over  the  Chersonese, 

in  Phocis  which  Philip  gave  ^schines  and  Philocrates.  iEschines,  it 
is  true,  retorts  the  charge ;  but  what  credit  can  be  given  to  the  man  who 
(Ctes.  62,  63)  accuses  Demosthenes  of  having  taken  bribes  from 
Philip? 


392  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  Cardians,  as  allies  of  Philip,  were  exempted  from  their 
jurisdiction.  Philip  swore  to  the  peace  on  these  terms ;  and 
as  he  was  now  on  the  eve  of  marching  against  the  Phocians, 
he  made  JEschines  and  his  friends  detain  the  embassy  some 
time  longer  at  Pella,  lest  the  Athenians,  being  officially  in- 
formed of  his  intentions,  should  send  troops  to  occupy 
Pylae.  On  their  return,  when  they  appeared  before  the 
senate,  Demosthenes  told  the  whole  truth,  and  charged  his 
colleagues  with  their  treachery;  and  his  representations 
had  such  effect,  that  the  senate  did  not  as  usual  give  the 
embassy  their  supper  in  the  Prytaneion.  But  when  they 
came  before  the  assembly,  iEschines  rose,  and  very  pom- 
pously assured  the  people  that  he  had  persuaded  Philip  to 
do  every  thing  that  was  for  their  advantage  in  the  affair  of 
the  Amphictyons,  and  in  every  thing  else;  and  that  if  they 
would  only  stay  quietly  at  home  for  two  or  three  days, 
they  would  hear  of  Thebes  being  besieged,  Thespise  and 
Platsea  rebuilt,  and  the  Thebans,  not  the  Phocians,  being 
made  to  replace  the  treasures  of  the  god;  and  that  Philip 
would  give  up  Euboea  to  them.  He  had  also  arranged 
something  further,  of  which  he  would  not  now  speak,  — 
meaning  Oropus.  He  ceased  :  Demosthenes  then  mounting, 
the  bc?na,  began  by  declaring  that  all  these  things  were 
unknown  to  him ;  and  he  was  proceeding,  when  ^Eschines 
stood  up  on  one  side,  and  Philocrates  on  the  other,  and 
shouted  at  and  mocked  him ;  the  people  then  began  to 
laugh,  and  would  not  listen  to  him.* 

While  the  Athenians  were  thus  beguiled  through  their 
desire  of  peace,  Philip  was  on  his  march  against  the 
Phocians.  The  war  between  them  and  the  Boeotians  had 
still  continued,  with  the  advantage  rather  on  the  side  of 
the  former,  who  held  the  towns  of  Orchomenus,  Coroneia, 
and  Corsiae,  in  Bceotia.  An  accusation  of  having  made 
away  with  several  articles  of  the  sacred  treasures,  was  made 
against  PhalaDCUs,  and   he  was   deprived  of  his  command ; 

*  Deraosth.,  False  Embassy,  346,  347,  389—391. 


END    OF    THE    SACRED    WAR.  393 

three  generals,  Deinocrates,  Callias,  and  Sophanes,  were 
appointed  in  his  stead,  and  a  strict  inquiry  into  the  dilapida- 
tions was  instituted.  Philon,  one  of  those  principally  con- 
cerned, being  put  to  the  torture,  gave  information  against 
his  accomplices;  and  after  having  been  made  to  restore  all 
that  remained  of  their  plunder,  they  were  put  to  death  as 
temple  robbers.  It  appears  that  Phalsecus  and  his  friends, 
not  content  with  what  was  remaining  of  the  treasures  of 
Croesus  and  of  the  different  states,  had  dug  up  the  floor  of 
the  temple,  inferring  from  a  passage  of  Homer  *  that  a  treas- 
ure was  buried  there.  We  are  told  that  when  they  began 
to  dig  about  the  tripod,  the  ground  was  shaken  by  earth- 
quakes, and  they  desisted  in  terror. 

The  Thebans,  in  want  of  both  men  and  money,  implored 
the  aid  of  the  king  of  Macedonia,  who  sent  them  some 
troops.  The  Phocians  were  soon  obliged  to  restore  the 
chief  command  to  Phalsecus,  for  he  remained  at  the  head  of 
the  mercenaries,  and  had  also  a  strong  party  among  the  peo- 
ple ;  but  as  the  designs  of  Philip  were  now  no  secret,  they 
sent  to  the  Athenians,  offering  to  put  into  their  hands  the 
three  Locrian  towns,  Alponus,  Thronion,  and  Nicaea,  which 
commanded  the  pass  of  Pylse,  if  they  would  come  to  their 
aid.  This  was  before  the  conclusion  of  the  peace  with 
Philip ;  and  it  was  decreed  at  once  that  Proxenus  should 
sail  with  fifty  triremes  and  take  possession  of  these  places, 
and  that  all  the  citizens  under  thirty  years  of  age  should 
march  to  Locris.  But  Phalsecus  and  his  officers,  who  had 
their  own  views,  prevented  this,  and  they  abused  and  ill- 
treated  the  ministers  who  had  concluded  the  treaty  with 
Athens.  As  the  danger  became  more  imminent,  King  Ar- 
chidamus,  who  had  been  sent  with  one  thousand  hoplites 
to  aid  the  Phocians,  offered  to  garrison  those  fortresses ; 
but  Phalsecus  and  his  party  made  an  insolent  reply,  and  the 
Lacedaemonians  left  Phocis  to  its  fate.  Philip  passed  the 
strait  at  the  head  of  an  army :  Phalsecus,  who  lay  at  Nicaea 

*  II.  ix.  404 

X  X 


394  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

with  eight  thousand  men,  feigned  to  be  preparing  to  give 
him  battle;  but  he  secretly  negotiated,  and  at  length  de- 
livered up  the  fortresses,  on  condition  of  himself  and  his 
troops  being  allowed  to  pass  over  to  Peloponnesus.  The 
wretched  Phocians,  who  were  now  entirely  at  the  mercy 
of  Philip,  surrendered  unconditionally.  A  council  of  Am- 
phictyons  was  assembled,  in  which  of  course  the  deputies  of 
states  adverse  to  them  formed  the  majority.  Philip,  who 
was  never  wantonly  cruel,  found  it  necessary  to  moderate 
the  violence  of  some  of  the  more  zealous,  such  as  the 
CEteans,  who  ferociously  proposed  that  all  the  grown  men 
should  be  flung  from  a  rock  and  killed.  He,  however,  deemed 
it  prudent  to  give  way  to  the  Thebans  and  Thessalians,  and 
the  following  not  very  gentle  decree  was  passed :  The  Pho- 
cians were  no  longer  to  have  any  part  in  the  temple  or  in  the 
Amphictyonic  council,  their  two  votes  in  which  were  to  be 
given  to  the  king  of  Macedonia  and  his  posterity;  their 
towns  were  to  be  destroyed,  and  the  inhabitants  divided  into 
villages  of  not  more  than  fifty  houses  each,  and  not  less 
than  a  stadion  asunder  :  they  were  to  pay  sixty  talents  a 
year  to  the  god,  till  the  whole  of  the  treasure  was  replaced, 
and  till  that  was  done  they  were  to  have  neither  horses  nor 
armor ;  those  which  they  had  at  present  were  to  be  given 
up;  the  former  to  be  sold,  the  latter  to  be  broken  and  burnt. 
The  Lacedaemonians,  as  abettors  of  the  sacrilege,  were  to  be 
excluded  from  the  council,  and  the  Corinthians  to  lose  the 
presidence  of  the  Pythian  games,  which,  with  the  right  of 
promanty,  was  awarded  to  the  pious  king  of  Macedonia. 
Philip  carried  the  decree  of  the  Amphictyons  into  execution, 
and  laid  Phocis  waste.  He  offered  an  asylum  in  his  domin- 
ions to  the  wretched  inhabitants,  and  peopled  with  them 
some  of  the  towns  which  he  founded  in  Thrace. 

The  Sacred  War,  excited  by  the  malice  and  cupidity  of 
the  Thebans,  thus  terminated  in  the  ruin  of  an  innocent 
people;  for  surely  the  Phocians  are  not  chargeable  with 
the  guilt  of  their  leaders.  It  was  in  every  way  injurious  to 
Greece;  it  carried  to  the  height  the  ruinous  practice  of 


ATHENIAN    STATESMEN.  395 

mercenary  service ;  and  it  utterly  destroyed  the  remaining 
reverence  for  religion,  by  scattering  the  votive  offerings  of 
piety,  and  by  inuring  men  to  set  at  nought  the  anger  of 
the  deities  of  popular  belief.  Historians  have  endeavored 
to  show,  that  all  the  aiders  and  abettors  of  the  sacrilege 
met  with  due  chastisement :  *  Athens  and  Sparta,  for  in- 
stance, lost  their  independence  ;  Archidamus  was  slain,  aid- 
ing the  Tarentines,  in  Italy ;  Phalsecus  and  several  of  his 
men  were  killed  by  lightning,  as  they  were  making  an  at- 
tempt on  the  town  of  Cydonia,  in  Crete ;  the  remainder 
were  slain,  or  sold  for  slaves,  by  the  Arcadians  and  Eleians : 
the  woman  who  got  the  collar  of  Eriphyle  perished  in  the 
flames  of  a  house,  set  fire  to  by  her  own  son  ;  and  she  who 
got  that  of  Helena  became  a  common  harlot.  Remarks  of 
this  kind,  however,  are  little  to  be  heeded  ;  they  indicate 
the  weakness  of  superstition,  not  the  strength  of  rational 
religion. 

The  Athenians  alone  can  now  be  regarded  as  the  rivals 
of  the  king  of  Macedonia.  A  glance  at  the  public  men  at 
Athens  will  be  therefore  of  advantage.f 

Isocrates,  the  amiable,  excellent  old  man,  the  master  of 
so  many  statesmen  and  historians,  was  still  alive.  Born 
five  years  before  the  Peloponnesian  War,  he  had  been  the 
witness  of  all  the  intestine  tumults  and  divisions  of  Greece, 
for  which  he  saw  no  remedy  but  a  general  confederacy, 
headed  by  the  king  of  Macedonia,  against  the  Persians. 
But  he  was  a  sincere  patriot,  and  never  dreamed  of  sacri- 
ficing the  independence  of  Athens. 

The  worthy  (/grjaTdg)  Phocion,  plain  and  simple  in  man- 
ners, pure   in  life,  viewed  with  disgust   and   contempt  the 

*  Diodor.  xvi.  61 — 64. 

t  Our  views  of  some  of  these  characters  will  be  found  to  differ  widely 
from  those  of  Mitford.  We  are  conscious  of  no  prejudice,  and  that 
writer's  are  well  known.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that  Mitford  has  not  a 
single  follower  on  the  Continent ;  and,  if  names  are  to  decide,  that  of 
Niebuhr  is  beyond  his.  Mitford  makes  Demosthenes  almost  worse 
than  Cleon,  Niebuhr  terms  him  a  (political)  saint. 


396  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

sunken  condition  of  the  Athenian  character.  He  was  there- 
fore opposed  to  war,  from  which  he  anticipated  no  sub- 
stantial advantages  to  his  country ;  but,  like  the  aristocrats 
of  the  preceding  period,  though  he  disapproved  of  her  poli- 
tics, he  never  refused  her  his  services,  and  he  was  chosen 
general  not  less  than  forty-five  times  by  the  people,  who 
knew  his  worth.  Had  Phocion  been  more  mild  and  con- 
descending, his  virtues  would  probably  have  been  more  pro- 
ductive of  good  to  the  state. 

Demosthenes,  whose  imagination  was  filled  with  the 
glory  and  power  of  Athens  at  the  time  when  Macedonia 
was  as  nought  in  the  political  scale,  could  not  brook  the 
idea  of  tamely  yielding  up  the  supremacy  which  she  had 
nearly  regained.  He  was  fully  aware  of  the  degeneracy  of 
the  Athenians ;  but  he  relied  on  his  own  mighty  powers  to 
raise  them  to  a  level  with  himself,  and  he  did  achieve  won- 
ders, but  the  evil  was  beyond  cure.  His  policy,  therefore, 
though  generous,  was  ill-judged ;  but  the  lover  of  national 
independence  must  always  view  his  character  with  respect 
and  veneration. 

Lycurgus,  a  second  Aristeides,  felt,  and  thought,  and  acted 
with  Demosthenes.  Hypereides,  Polyeuctes,  Diophantus, 
Hegesippus,  and  others,  all  men  of  talent,  were  on  the  same 
side.  As  political  parties  never  can  be  altogether  pure,  this 
one  was  disgraced  by  the  unworthy  Timarchus. 

Against  these  patriots  were  arrayed  the  hirelings  of 
Philip,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  iEschines,  a  man  of  con- 
siderable talent,  and,  in  general,  respectable  in  character. 
He  had  been,  as  he  boasted,  the  first  to  see  through  the  de- 
signs of  Philip,  and  had  exerted  himself  to  thwart  them ;  * 
but,  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  embassy  to  Macedonia,  that 
able  prince  found  means  to  purchase  his  services,  and  he 
was  to  the  last  the  ready  agent  of  his  will.  Eubulus,  also 
a  man  of  talent,  was  purchased  in  like  manner  when  on  an 
embassy.     Philocrates  made  no  secret  of  his  having  sold 

*  Demosth.,  False  Embassy,  438. 


ATHENIAN    STATESMEN.  397 

himself.  Demades,  originally  a  boatman,  without  regular 
education,  but  powerful  as  an  extemporary  speaker,  whose 
extravagance,  it  was  said,  would  have  wasted  even  the  reve- 
nues of  Persia,  was  naturally  in  the  pay  of  Philip.  These 
were  the  chief,  but  several  of  inferior  note  actively  co- 
operated with  them. 

But  Philip  had  a  more  powerful  ally  in  the  character  of 
the  Athenian  people,  who  thought  only  of  enjoyment,  and 
shrank  from  the  toils  of  war.  The  lower  orders  were  un- 
willing to  serve  personally,  and  the  rich  were  adverse  to 
giving  their  money  to  hire  mercenaries;  and  these,  when 
hired,  were  not  to  be  depended  on.  Phocion  and  Diopeithes 
were  brave  and  upright  officers  ;  but  the  swaggering,  worth- 
less Chares  was  the  favorite  of  the  people,  and  was  but  too 
often  preferred  to  them.  The  faithless,  mercenary  Chari- 
demus  was  also  frequently  employed  on  expeditions  of  im- 
portance. 

With  Philip  every  thing  was  different.  He  could  form 
his  plans  in  secret,  having  no  popular  assembly  to  persuade ; 
he  had  money  in  abundance;  he  had  a  standing  army  of 
mercenaries  and  of  his  own  subjects,  for  he  had  now  formed 
the  renowned  Macedonian  phalanx,  a  body  of  greater  depth 
and  with  longer  spears  then  any  that  had  yet  been  em- 
ployed :  he  had  able  generals  and  ministers  ;  above  all,  he  was 
himself  one  of  the  first  generals  and  statesmen  of  the  age. 
To  form  and  consolidate  an  empire  northwards  of  Greece, 
to  exercise  the  hegemony  over  Greece  itself,  and  to  lead  a 
combined  army  of  Greeks  and  Macedonians  to  the  conquest 
of  Persia,  were  the  objects  that  guided  his  policy.  There 
is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  he  ever  aimed  at  making 
Greece  a  province  of  his  empire. 

Having  thus  shown  the  policy  of  Philip  and  his  opponents, 
we  are  freed  from  the  necessity  of  giving  the  events  of  the 
three  next  years  in  detail,  and  shall  only  briefly  point  them 
out. 

The  year  after  the  end  of  the  Phocian  war  (Ol.  108,  4) 
Philip  spent  chiefly  in  Thrace,  founding  towns,  in  which  he 
34 


393  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

placed  the  Phocians  and  other  Greeks.  He  then  turned  his 
arms  against  the  Illyrians,  to  secure  his  dominions  on  that 
side.  Soon  afterwards,  (Ol.  109,  1,)  he  remodelled  Thessaly, 
so  as  to  put  the  power  there  completely  into  the  hands  of  his 
own  friends ;  he  divided  it  into  its  four  original  provinces, 
Phthiotis,  Histiaeotis,  Pelasgiotis,  and  Thessaliotis.  Mean- 
time he  made  himself  master  of  Leucas  and  Ambracia  on 
the  Ionian  Sea,  and  he  formed  alliances  with  the  Argives, 
Messenians,  Arcadians,  and  Eleians  in  Peloponnesus. 

Eubcea  chiefly  attracted  his  attention,  on  account  of  its 
proximity  to  Attica.  The  Eretrians,  after  the  expulsion  of 
Plutarchus,  were  split  into  two  parties,  one  for  Athens, 
another  for  Philip.  The  latter  got  the  upper  hand,  and 
Philip  sent  thither  one  thousand  mercenaries,  and  placed  the 
chief  power  in  the  hands  of  Hipparchus,  Automedon,  and 
Cleitarchus,  who  were  devoted  to  him.  He  acted  in  the 
same  manner  at  Oreos,  where  he  set  up  Philistides,  and  thus 
established  his  influence  over  the  whole  island. 

Philip  again  (Ol.  109,  3)  led  his  troops  into  Thrace,  and 
extended  his  conquests  as  far  as  the  Ister,  where  he  spent 
an  entire  winter.  But  the  Chersonese  and  the  cities  on  the 
Propontis  were  what  he  really  aimed  at.  He  sent  troops 
to  the  aid  of  the  Cardians,  who  were  hard  pressed  by  the 
Athenians.  Diopeithes,  whom  the  Athenians  had  sent  out, 
took  satisfaction  for  this  by  an  incursion  into  Thrace  ;  and, 
when  Philip  complained,  as  usual,  they,  by  the  advice  of 
Demosthenes,  paid  no  attention  to  his  representations.  The 
orator  himself  went  to  the  coast  of  Thrace,  on  the  part  of 
his  country,  and  formed  an  alliance  with  the  people  of  By- 
zantion,  Perinthus,  Selymbria,  and  some  of  the  petty  princes 
about  there;  and  soon  after,  the  people  of  Eubcea  having 
solicited  aid  against  their  tyrants,  an  army,  commanded  by 
Phocion,  who  was  accompanied  by  Demosthenes,  passed 
over  and  restored  them  to  liberty. 

Philip,  who  was  now  returned  from  beyond  Mount 
Haemus,  came  and  laid  siege  to  Selymbria;  and  leaving 
some  troops  to  blockade  it,  he  advanced  with  30,000  men, 


SIEGE    OF    PERINTHUS.  399 

and  sat  down  before  Perinthus.  (01.  110,  1.)  He  assailed 
the  town  incessantly  with  battering-rams  and  machines  of 
every  kind :  the  Perinthians  made  a  gallant  defence ;  the 
Byzantians  sent  them  supplies  of  arms ;  and  the  Persian 
satraps  of  the  opposite  coast,  aware  of  Philip's  ulterior  de- 
signs, sent  them  money,  corn,  arms,  and  a  good  body  of 
mercenaries.  Philip,  having  long  assailed  Perinthus  in  vain, 
divided  his  forces ;  and  leaving  one  half  at  Perinthus,  went 
himself  with  the  remainder,  and  laid  siege  to  Byzantion. 
But  this  city  being,  like  Perinthus,  built  on  a  peninsula, 
was  easy  to  defend ;  and  the  Athenians,  at  length  fully 
aware  of  the  designs  of  Philip,  resolved  to  aid  it. 

Demosthenes  had,  with  difficulty,  gained  the  advantage 
over  the  Macedonian  hirelings  in  the  Athenian  assembly ; 
and  he  now  showed  so  plainly  the  consequences  of  Philip's 
becoming  master  of  the  Bosporus,  that  it  was  voted  that 
Philip  had  broken  the  peace,  and  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  triremes  was  got  ready  for  the  relief  of  Byzantion. 
But  the  command  was  given  to  the  unprincipled  Chares, 
whose  character  was  so  notorious  that  the  Byzantians  would 
not  admit  him  into  their  harbor.  It  was  then  transferred 
to  Phocion,  and  him  they  cheerfully  received  into  their 
town.  The  Chians,  Coans,  and  Rhodians  sent  assistance  to 
their  ancient  allies ;  and  Philip  was  at  length  obliged  to 
raise  the  sieges  of  Perinthus  and  Byzantion,  the  people  of 
which  towns  decreed  all  kinds  of  public  honors  to  the 
Athenians,  as  their  preservers.* 

With  a  view  apparently  to  indemnify  his  troops  for  the 
loss  of  the  plunder  of  the  towns,  which  he  had  promised 
them,  Philip  took  advantage  of  the  alleged  treachery  of  a 
Scythian  prince,  and  led  them  once  more  over  Mount  Hae- 
mus,  and  plundered  the  valley  of  the  Danube.  As  he  was 
returning,  with  a  large  booty  of  slaves  and  mares,  his  army 
was  suddenly  fallen  on  by  a  tribe   named  the  Triballians, 


*  Diodor.  xvi.  74—76.    Justin,  ix.  1,  2.     Plut.  Phocion,  14.    De- 
mosth.,  Crown,  252—257. 


400  HISTCRY    OF    GREECE. 

and  he  himself  narrowly  escaped  being  slain  in  the  engage- 
ment.* 

While  Philip  was  in  Scythia,  a  transaction  highly  dis- 
honorable to  him  was  brought  to  light  at  Athens.  There 
was  a  man,  named  Antiphon,  who  had  been  struck  out  of 
the  list  as  not  being  a  genuine  Athenian  citizen ;  he  re- 
paired to  Philip,  and,  for  a  suitable  reward,  undertook  to 
serve  him,  and  gratify  his  own  desire  of  vengeance,  by 
burning  the  docks  at  Athens.  He  returned  secretly,  and 
lurked  at  the  Piraeeus  for  that  purpose ;  but  Demosthenes  had 
received  information,  and  he  dragged  him  before  the  assem- 
bly, and  charged  him  with  his  design.  ^Eschines  then  rose, 
and  crying  out  against  the  atrocity  of  going  into  private 
houses  without  a  warrant,  and  insulting  unhappy  persons, 
so  moved  the  people  that  they  let  him  go.  The  court  of 
Areiopagus,  however,  had  him  taken  up  again  and  brought 
before  the  people,  who,  moved  by  their  authority,  directed 
that  he  should  be  put  to  the  torture ;  he  then  confessed 
his  guilt,  and  was  executed.!  This  court  further  testified 
its  opinion  of  ^Eschines'  character  by  removing  him  from 
the  office  of  advocate,  (avi'dixog,)  to  which  the  people  had 
nominated  him  in  a  dispute  between  the  Athenians  and  De- 
lians,  regarding  the  custody  of  the  temple  of  Delos,  and 
appointing  Hypereides  to  plead  the  cause  of  Athens  in  his 
stead. 

During  Philip's  absence  in  Scythia,  accident  or  design  J 
furnished  him  with  a  pretext  for  appearing  again  in  Greece. 
^Eschines,  being  one  of  the  Athenian  deputies  to  the  Am- 

*  Justin,  ix. 

t  Demosth.,  Crown,  271.  Plutarch  (Demosth.  14)  says  that  Demos- 
thenes' conduct  on  this  occasion  was  highly  aristocratic.  He  observes, 
(as  any  one  must  who  reads  his  speeches,)  that  he  rebuked  and  op- 
posed the  people  with  great  freedom.  Yet  Mitford  calls  him  "  the 
favorite  and  flatterer  of  the  people  !  "  He  says  also  that  Demosthenes 
was  no  favorite  with  Plutarch  ! 

%  Demosthenes  (Crown,  275,  276)  maintained  that  it  had  been  con- 
certed between  .<Eschines  and  Philip :  ^schines  asserted  that  it  was 
purely  accidental,  and  we  are  inclined  to  believe  him. 


THE    AMPHISSIAN    WAR.  401 

phictyonic  Council,  moved  (according  to  himself)  with  in- 
dignation at  the  Amphictyons,  on  the  motion  of  a  Locrian 
of  Amphissa,  proposing  a  fine  of  fifty  talents  on  the  Athe- 
nians, pointed  out  to  them  the  Cirrhsean  or  Crissasan  plain, 
which  the  Amphissians  were  cultivating,  and  the  port  which 
they  had  re-opened,  and  having  read  to  them  the  ancient 
oracle,  and  the  curses  denounced  on  those  who  should  do 
so,*  left  the  assembly.  An  outcry  was  raised ;  and  next 
day  the  Delphians,  headed  by  the  Amphictyons,  went  down 
into  the  plain,  and  destroyed  the  port,  and  burned  the  houses. 
The  Amphissians  came  in  arms,  and  drove  them  off  An  ex- 
traordinary council  was  held  some  time  after,  in  which  Demos- 
thenes kept  the  Athenians  from  sharing,  and  war  was  de- 
clared against  the  Amphissians.  But  as  some  states  sent 
no  troops,  and  those  which  came  did  nothing,  Philip  was, 
at  the  next  meeting,  (Ol.  110,  3,)  chosen  general  of  the 
Amphictyonic  army.  He  immediately  issued  his  orders  to 
all  the  members  to  meet  him  in  arms  in  Phocis,  whither  he 
led  his  own  troops  ;  and  having  dispersed  a  body  of  ten 
thousand  mercenaries,  sent  by  the  Athenians  to  aid  the 
Amphissians,  he  reduced  Amphissa.  He  then  unveiled  his 
designs  by  suddenly  seizing  Elateia,  the  key  of  Bceotia. 

Though  the  Athenians  had  been  expecting  a  war  with 
Philip,  their  dismay  was  great  when  they  heard  of  the  seizure 
of  Elateia.  In  the  assembly,  Demosthenes  proposed  that 
an  embassy  should  be  sent  off  immediately  to  Thebes  to  pro- 
pose an  alliance.  This  was  adopted,  and  he  himself  named 
on  the  embassy ;  and  all  the  arts  and  all  the  eloquence  of 
those  sent  by  Philip  to  oppose  him  failed  before  him,  and 
Thebes  joined  with  Athens.  The  extraordinary  exertions 
of  the  same  orator  had  engaged  the  Corinthians,  Megarians, 
and  others  to  unite  in  the  cause  of  independence  ;  and  within 
six  weeks  from  the  seizure  of  Elateia,  a  combined  army  was 
assembled  in  Bceotia  to  oppose  the  Macedonian  monarch.! 

*  See  above,  p.  61. 

t  Demosth.,  Crown,  284—292.  Plut.  Demosth.  19.  Diodor.  xvi. 
85,86. 


34 


Y  Y 


402  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

The  banks  of  a  small  stream  near  Chaeroneia  witnessed 
the  battle  which  decided  the  fate  of  Greece  forever.  The 
Macedonian  army  consisted  of  thirty  thousand  foot  and  two 
thousand  horse,  all  veteran  troops,  and  commanded  by  the 
ablest  generals  of  the  time ;  that  of  the  confederates  was 
from  forty  to  fifty  thousand  men,  but  they  were  mostly 
militia,  and  were  led  by  Chares,  and  by  Lysicles  and  the 
Theban  Theagenes  —  men  as  worthless  as  Chares  him- 
self. 

The  two  armies  were  drawn  out  at  daybreak.  The  wing 
of  the  Macedonians  opposed  to  the  Thebans  was  led  by  the 
young  Alexander,  aided  by  experienced  officers  ;  Philip  him- 
self commanded  the  other,  which  stood  against  the  Athe- 
nians. The  Greeks  fought  bravely  :  the  Athenians  drove  back 
the  opposite  troops,  but  incautiously  pursuing,  they  were 
fallen  on  and  routed  by  a  body  of  select  troops  led  by  Philip 
in  person.  The  Thebans,  in  the  mean  time,  were  also  de- 
feated, and  the  entire  Sacred  Band  cut  to  pieces.  The  Athe- 
nians had  one  thousand  killed,  and  two  thousand  taken  ;  the 
slain  of  the  Thebans  exceeded  the  number  of  the  prisoners, 
either  because  they  fought  more  desperately,  or  were  more 
the  objects  of  the  Macedonians'  hatred.  Philip,  with  his 
wonted  humanity  and  wisdom,  issued  orders,  when  the  vic- 
tory was  won,  to  spare  the  vanquished. 

In  the  evening  Philip  gave  a  banquet  to  his  officers,  which 
lasted  through  the  night.  At  its  conclusion,  it  is  said,  the 
whole  party  went  out  to  view  the  field  of  battle.  On  coming 
to  where  the  Sacred  Band  lay  united  in  death  as  in  life, 
the  victor  is  said  to  have  shed  tears,  and  to  have  exclaimed, 
"  Perish  they  who  imagine  these  to  have  done  or  endured 
any  disgrace  !  "  *  When  he  came  to  the  part  of  the  field 
where  the  Athenians  had  fought,  he  gave  a  loose  to  his  joy, 
and  putting  the  commencement  of  Demosthenes'  decree  into 
metre,  sang  it  aloud.f  These  anecdotes  may  be  true,  or 
they  may  be  false ;  but  we  shall  find  the  subsequent  conduct 
of  Philip  that  of  a  really  great  man. 

*  Plutarch,  Pelopidas,  18.  t  Plutarch,  Demosth.  20. 


BATTLE    OF    CHiERONEIA.  403 

The  Athenians,  when  they  heard  of  the  defeat,  expected 
an  immediate  invasion  of  Attica.  On  the  motion  of  Hype- 
reides,  it  was  decreed  to  place  their  families  and  most  valu- 
able effects  in  the  Piraeeus,  and  to  restore  the  atimous  to 
their  rights,  admit  strangers  to  isotely,  and  give  freedom  to 
slaves  if  they  aided  in  the  defence  of  the  city.  The  incon- 
siderate people  were  for  giving  the  command  of  the  troops 
to  Charidemus,  when  the  court  of  Areiopagus  interfered, 
and  Phocion  was  appointed  to  the  office.*  But  the  pris- 
oners taken  at  Chaeroneia  now  arrived,  having  been  dis- 
missed without  ransom  ;  and  Antipater  and  the  young  prince 
Alexander  came  with  offers  of  peace,  which  were  readily 
accepted.  They  agreed  to  give  up  Samos,  for  which  they 
got  Oropus,  and  to  send  their  deputies  to  the  congress  which 
was  to  assemble  at  Corinth.  With  the  Thebans  Philip 
acted  more  harshly  :  several  of  their  leading  men  were  put 
to  death  or  banished ;  the  exiles  were  recalled,  and  a  Mace- 
donian garrison  placed  in  the  Cadmeia. 

Demosthenes,  who  was  deficient  in  physical  courage,  had, 
we  are  told,  flung  away  his  shield,  and  fled  at  Chaeroneia; 
but  the  people,  whom  he  had  raised  far  above  their  former 
level,  recognizing  in  him  the  true  and  unflinching  patriot, 
gave  him  now  one  of  the  strongest  proofs  they  could  of  their 
confidence.  When  the  public  funeral  of  those  who  had 
fallen  at  Chaeroneia  was  to  be  celebrated,  he  was  the  person 
chosen  to  pronounce  the  epitaphial  oration.  This  may  have 
been  but  a  piece  of  Athenian  vain-glory  and  insolence :  but 
we  willingly  assign  it  a  better  motive. f 

The  following  year,  (Ol.  110,  4,)  a  general  congress  of 
the  Amphictyonic  states  met  at  Corinth.  Philip  had  pre- 
viously, we  are  told,|  led  his  troops  into  Peloponnesus,  ex- 
ercised hostilities  against  Lacedaemon,  fixed  the  boundaries 


*  Plutarch,  Phocion,  16. 

t  Demosth.,  Crown,  320.     Plutarch,  Demosth.  21. 
\  Polyb.  ix.  28.  xvii.  14.     Polyaenus.     The  orators  do  not  make  the 
slightest  allusion  to  it. 


404  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

between  it  and  Argos,  Arcadia,  and  Messene,  and  given  the 
chief  power  in  these  states  to  his  own  friends. 

At  the  congress,  Philip's  orators  pictured  in  glowing  col- 
ors the  evils  inflicted  by  Persia  on  Greece.  No  one  rose 
to  oppose :  war  was  proclaimed  unanimously,  and  Philip 
chosen  commander-in-chief,  with  authority  to  fix  the  con- 
tributions of  each  state  in  men  and  money.  The  military 
force  of  Greece  at  this  time  is  given  *  as  200,000  foot  and 
15,000  horse,  exclusive  of  the  Macedonians.  Philip  then 
returned  to  Macedonia ;  and  his  first  care  was  to  send  a 
part  of  his  troops,  under  Parmenion  and  Attalus,  over  to 
Asia,  to  occupy  some  of  the  Greek  towns  there,  and  acquire 
intelligence  respecting  the  strength  and  the  means  of  the 
Persian  empire. 

Strict  fidelity  to  his  consort  had  never  been  among  the 
virtues  of  Philip,  and  he  had  now  divorced  the  haughty 
Olympias,  and  espoused  the  niece  of  Attalus ;  a  circumstance 
which  was  mediately  the  cause  of  his  death.  For  Attalus  had 
given  the  most  cruel  and  degrading  insult  to  a  young  Mace- 
donian of  the  body-guard,  named  Pausanias,  who,  having 
already  vainly  sought  justice  of  the  king,  resolved  to  avenge 
his  injuries  on  him  who  had  refused  to  redress  them. 

The  nuptials  of  his  daughter  Cleopatra  with  the  king  of 
Epeirus  taking  place  at  this  time,  Philip,  who  loved  show 
and  splendor,  celebrated  them  at  Mg&  with  great  magnifi- 
cence. Numbers  repaired  thither  from  all  parts  of  Greece, 
and  golden  crowns  from  individuals  and  states  were  pre- 
sented to  him  in  profusion.  Games,  plays,  and  processions 
occupied  the  day,  banquets  the  night ;  joy  and  festivity 
filled  the  thoughts  of  all ;  one  spirit  alone  was  gloomy. 

To  show  his  confidence  in  all  about  him,  Philip  directed 
his  guards  to  keep  at  some  distance  from  him.  He  ap- 
proached the  entrance  of  the  theatre,  and  sending  his  friends 
in   before   him,  was  preparing  to   follow,  when   Pausanias, 


*  Justin,  ix.  5.     If  this  credulous  writer  had  said  but  half  the  num- 
ber, he  would  have  been  nearer  the  truth. 


DEATH    OF    PHILIP.  405 

who  was  lying  in  wait,  rushed  on  him,  and  plunged  his 
sword  into  his  body.  The  king  fell  dead ;  the  murderer  ran 
to  where  he  had  a  horse  at  hand  for  flight;  but  the  bridle 
being  tied  to  a  vine,  he  stumbled  and  fell,  and  Perdiccas,  an 
officer  of  the  guard,  came  up  and  killed  him  on  the  spot.* 

Thus  perished,  in  the  noon  of  his  glory,  and  but  in  the 
forty-seventh  year  of  his  age,  the  able  king  of  Macedonia. 
The  great  abilities  of  Philip  must  be  acknowledged  by  every 
one  who  reads  his  history.  A  consummate  statesman,  an 
able  general,  an  accomplished  gentleman,  he  united  all  the 
qualities  which  lead  to  dominion:  his  very  vices t  and  fail- 
ings were  suited  to  further  his  views ;  by  his  love  of  wine 
and  revelry  he  attached  the  rude  Macedonians  and  Thessa- 
lians,  while  his  excessive  passion  for  the  drama  and  taste 
for  the  arts  recommended  him  to  the  Greeks.  The  object  of 
his  ambition  was  to  be  the  head  of  the  Greek  nation  ;  but, 
unlike  a  vulgar  conqueror,  he  acted  with  true  political 
wisdom,  and  did  not  sacrifice  the  substance  for  the  show : 
he  would  be  at  the  head  of  a  free  confederation,  he  would 
exercise  dominion  without  constraint,  and  therefore  he  left 
each  state  to  its  own  constitution  and  laws,  and  incorpo- 
rated none  in  his  empire.  Where  traitors  were  to  be  pur- 
chased, he  paid  for  them  liberally  ;  and  to  what  government 
is  secret  service  money  unknown  ?  He  also  employed  the 
usual  artifices  of  statesmen,  and  could  be  false  and  break 
engagements  when  it  served  his  purpose.  But  the  end  he 
proposed  would  have  been  beneficial  to  Greece,  were  it  not 
that  Providence  seems  to  have  decreed  that  she  never  should 
know  the  blessings  of  concord  and  unity. 

*  Diodor.  xvi.  91 — 95.  Arist.  Pol.  v.  8.  Mitford  and  his  disciples 
have  endeavored,  in  spite  of  all  probability,  to  make  Demosthenes  a 
confederate  with  Pausanias. 

t  Theopompus  (apud  Athenaeum)  has  left  a  fearful  picture  of  Philip's 
vices ;  but  the  malignity  of  that  historian  is  such  that  we  must  always 
make  deductions  from  his  statements.     See  Polybius,  viii.  11 — 13. 


406  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 


CHAPTER  III.* 


ALEXANDER    THE    GREAT. 


The  direction  of  the  extensive  empire  which  Philip  had 
created  fell  now  to  his  son  Alexander.  The  young  monarch 
was  only  in  the  twentieth  year  of  his  age;  but  nature  had 
bestowed  on  him  talents  of  the  highest  order,  and  the  wis- 
dom of  his  father  had  aided  to  develop  them  by  placing  him 
under  the  care  of  the  great  Aristotle.  It  was  now  to  be  seen 
if  his  abilities  were  adequate  to  consolidating  and  extending 
the  dominion  which  Philip  had  left.     (01.  Ill,  1.) 

As  soon  as  he  had  celebrated  his  father's  obsequies  and 
regulated  the  affairs  of  Macedonia,  where  he  won  the  hearts 
of  the  people  by  reducing  the  taxes,  he  placed  himself  at 
the  head  of  an  army,  and  advanced  into  Greece ;  for  the 
Athenians,  urged  by  Demosthenes,  who  had  testified  in 
rather  an  unbecoming  manner  his  joy  at  the  murder  of 
Philip,f  were  preparing  for  war,  and  the  Thebans  were  about 
to  expel  the  garrison  from  the  Cadmeia.  Aware  of  the 
advantage  of  promptitude  and  vigor,  Alexander  appeared 
suddenly  in  Bceotia,  and  came  and  encamped  at  the  foot 
of  the  Theban  citadel.  The  Thebans  feared  to  stir ;  the 
Athenians,  apprehensive  of  an  invasion,  collected  all  their 
property  into  the  town,  and  then  sent  an  embassy  to  apolo- 
gize for  what  they  had  done.  Demosthenes  himself  was 
one  of  those  sent ;  but  his  courage  failing  him,  he  went  no 
farther  than  Mount  Cithseron.  Alexander  received  the  em- 
bassy with  great  favor.  He  invited  deputies  from  all  parts 
of  Greece  to  meet  him  at  Corinth,  and  he  was  there  unani- 
mously appointed  general  autocrator  of  the  army  to  be  em- 
ployed to  avenge  on  the  Persians  their  former  invasion  of 

*  Arrian,  Expedition  of  Alexander.  Plutarch,  Alex.  Diodor.  xviii. 
Quintus  Curtius. 

t  ^Eschines,  Ctes.  64.     Plutarch,  Demosth.  22. 


ALEXANDER   THE    GREAT.  407 

Greece ;  the  only  dissidents  being  the  Lacedaemonians,  who, 
thinking  more  of  what  they  had  been  that  of  what  they 
were,  said  that  it  had  always  been  their  custom  to  lead,  not 
to  follow. 

Alexander  had  hardly  returned  to  Macedonia,  when  (01. 
Ill,  2)  his  attention  was  called  to  the  Illyrians,  the  Tri- 
ballians,  and  other  rude  tribes,  who  sought  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  weakness  incident  to  a  new  reign.  The  resist- 
ance, however,  which  they  could  make  against  the  disci- 
plined troops  of  Macedonia  was  but  feeble.  Alexander 
crossed  Mount  Hsemus,  between  which  and  the  Ister  the 
Triballians  dwelt,  and  having  reduced  them,  passed  that 
river  to  make  war  on  the  Getans,  who  occupied  its  further 
bank.  While  he  was  here,  reports  of  his  defeat  and  death 
were  spread  through  Greece.  Demosthenes,  Lycurgus, 
Deinarchus,  and  other  orators  excited  the  Athenians  to  cast 
off  the  Macedonian  yoke.  The  Thebans,  who  had  lost 
every  thing  at  Chaeroneia,  were  easily  induced  to  strike  once 
more  for  freedom :  they  fell  on  and  slew  a  part  of  the  Mace- 
donian garrison,  which  they  caught  outside  of  the  Cadmeia, 
and  then  raised  a  rampart  round  that  fortress,  and  sent  to 
summon  aid  from  Argos,  Elis,  and  Arcadia.  The  Athenians 
voted  them  succors,  but  sent  none.  Demosthenes  of  him- 
self made  them  a  present  of  a  large  quantity  of  arms. 

In  seven  days  from  the  time  the  tidings  reached  him, 
Alexander  was  in  Thessaly ;  six  more  brought  him  thence 
to  Thebes,  with  thirty  thousand  foot  and  three  thousand 
horse.  The  Peloponnesian  allies,  hearing  of  his  arrival, 
halted  at  the  Isthmus :  the  Thebans,  though  left  alone, 
would  listen  to  no  offers  of  accommodation  :  they  gave  him 
battle  before  their  gates,  and  after  a  most  sanguinary  con- 
flict, were  overcome,  and  the  city  stormed.  To  gratify 
the  Thespians,  Plataeans,  Orchomenians,  Phocians,  and 
the  other  enemies  of  the  Thebans,  the  city  was  plundered 
and  destroyed,  and  the  surviving  inhabitants  sold  for 
slaves. 

Alexander  sent  next  to  Athens,  demanding  that  the  orators 


408  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

and  generals,*  who  had  shown  themselves  his  constant  ene- 
mies, should  be  delivered  up  to  him.  The  people  were  in 
great  anguish  and  perplexity  :  Phocion  called  on  the  orators 
to  imitate  the  daughters  of  Leon  and  Hyacinthus,  who,  as 
the  legends  told,  had  sacrificed  themselves  for  their  country  : 
the  people,  however,  hooted,  and  would  not  listen  to  him  ; 
and  when  Demosthenes  spoke  in  behalf  of  himself  and  his 
friends,  they  evinced  the  greatest  sympathy.  Demades 
(gained,  it  was  said,  by  a  bribe  of  five  talents  from  those 
who  were  in  danger)  proposed  a  decree  artfully  worded, 
declaring  that  if  guilty  they  should  be  punished  according 
to  law,  and  he  was  sent  with  this  decree  to  Alexander. 
The  young  king,  who  now  regretted  his  severity  to  the  The- 
bans,  was  easily  induced  to  forgive,  and  only  Ephialtes  and 
the  notorious  Charidemus  were  obliged  to  quit  Athens. f 

Greece  being  now  reduced  to  submission,  Alexander 
called  on  the  different  states  for  their  contingents  of  troops  ; 
and  having  on  his  return  home  celebrated  the  feast  of  the 
Muses  for  nine  days  with  great  magnificence,  and  left 
Antipater  with  12,000  men  to  govern  his  European  domin- 
ions, he  crossed  the  Hellespont,  at  the  head  of  30,000  foot  and 
4500  horse,  to  achieve  the  conquest  of  Asia.  (01.  111,3.) 

It  is  not  our  intention  to  detail  minutely  the  exploits  of 
this  greatest  of  conquerors,  which  belong  not  properly  to 
Grecian  history,  and  which  would  justly  require  a  separate 
work. |     A  very  brief  sketch  of  them,  therefore,  must  suffice. 

The  Persian  empire  had  run  the  usual  course  of  Asiatic 
dominion  ;  murder,  treason,  and  their  attendant  crimes  had 
become  frequent  in  the  royal  house,  and  the  coherence  of 
the  different  parts  of  the  huge  empire  was  growing  feebler 
every  day.     The  eunuch  Bagoas,  who  now  disposed  of  the 

*  Namely,  Demosthenes,  Lycurgus,  Hypereides,  Polyeuctus,  Ephi- 
altes, Diotimus,  Moerocles,  and  the  generals  Chares  and  Charidemus. 

t  Diodor.  xvii.  15.     Plutarch,  Demosth.  23. 

$  It  is  our  design,  on  some  future  occasion,  to  devote  a  volume  (to 
correspond  with  the  present  one)  to  the  history  of  Alexander  and  his 
successors. 


ALEXANDER    THE    GREAT.  409 

throne,  had  placed  on  it  Darius  Codomannus,  of  a  distant 
branch  of  the  royal  family.  This  prince,  to  whom  misfor- 
tune has  given  interest,  was  hardly  seated  on  his  throne 
when  the  young  Macedonian  monarch  entered  Asia  to  dis- 
pute it  with  him. 

When  the  Persian  officers  near  the  Hellespont  heard  of  the 
approach  of  Alexander,  they  collected  their  forces  to  oppose 
him.  Memnon,*  the  Rhodian,  who  was  in  their  camp, 
strongly  advised  not  to  give  battle,  but  to  retire  and  lay 
the  country  waste  behind  them ;  but  the  haughty  Persians 
spurned  this  prudent  counsel  :  they  engaged  with  their  raw 
troops,  at  the  little  river  Granicus,  the  soldiers  whom  Philip 
had  trained  to  conquest,  and  sustained  a  total  defeat.  The 
Persian  army  vanished,  the  Greeks  in  their  pay  were  put  to 
death  as  traitors,  and  Asia  Minor  became  the  prize  of  the 
conqueror.  All  the  Greek  cities  of  the  coast  opened  their 
gates  to  him,  and  he  reestablished  their  democracies.  Sar- 
des  was  surrendered  by  its  Persian  governor  :  no  resistance 
was  met  till  he  reached  Halicarnassus,  in  Caria,  which 
Memnon  defended  obstinately  for  some  time.  During  the 
siege,  Ephialtes,  the  exiled  Athenian,  was  slain  fighting 
bravely  against  those  who  had  driven  him  from  his  country. 
Memnon,  at  length,  rinding  the  town  no  longer  tenable,  re- 
tired to  Cos  ;  and  Alexander,  advancing  down  the  coast,  con- 
tinued to  receive  the  submissions  of  the  inhabitants. 

Darius  had  now  sent  Memnon  a  large  supply  of  money, 
and  committed  to  him  the  conduct  of  the  war.  This  able 
commander,  well  acquainted  with  the  state  of  things  in 
Greece,  knew  that  it  was  there,  and  not  in  Asia,  that  Alex- 


*  Mentor  and  Memnon  were  two  young  Rhodians,  whose  sister  the 
satrap  Artabazus  had  married.  Mentor  engaged  in  the  service  of  the 
king,  (Darius  Ochus.)  and  was  of  great  use  in  putting  down  the  rebellion 
in  Egypt ;  Memnon,  who  shared  the  fortune  of  his  brother-in-law,  had 
to  seek  refuge  with  Philip.  Through  Mentor's  influence  they  were 
both  pardoned.  We  see,  therefore,  how  Memnon  was  the  fittest  person 
to  oppose  to  the  Macedonians  and  Greeks,  with  whom  he  was  well 
acquainted. 

35  zz 


410  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

andcr  must  be  assailed.  He  collected  a  fleet  of  three  hundred 
ships,  and  made  himself  master  of  the  ^Egean ;  he  opened 
a  communication  with  the  Greeks  who  were  ill  affected  to 
Alexander,  and  was  on  the  point  of  organizing  a  powerful 
confederacy  against  him  when  the  conqueror's  fortune  pre- 
vailed. Memnon  was  carried  off  by  a  disease,  and  no  one 
remained  to  take  his  place. 

Alexander  was  now  (Ol.  Ill,  4)  in  Cilicia;  and  Darius, 
who  had  assembled  an  army  of  500,000  men  at  Babylon, 
was  advancing  to  meet  him.  In  a  council  of  war  it  had 
been  debated  whether  the  king  himself  should  lead  his  army, 
and  put  all  on  the  hazard  of  a  battle,  or  send  a  force  under 
lijis  generals.  Many  of  the  gallant  Persian  nobles  spoke  in 
favor  of  the  former  course  ;  but  Charidemus,  who  was  pres- 
ent, asserted  that  100,000  men,  of  whom  a  third  should  be 
Greeks,  would  suffice,  and  pledged  himself  with  that  force  to 
insure  the  safety  of  the  empire.  This  counsel  was  opposed 
by  the  Persians,  who  hinted  that  his  object  was  to  betray 
the  army  to  the  Macedonians.  Charidemus  grew  warm,  and 
spoke  with  contempt  of  the  cowardice  and  effeminacy  of  the 
Persians.  Darius,  unused  to  such  language,  in  a  moment  of 
irritation  gave  the  signal  to  his  attendants  to  put  him  to 
death,  and  the  faithless,  drunken  mercenary  perished,  the 
victim  of  his  freedom  of  speech. 

At  the  pass  of  Issus,  leading  from  Cilicia  into  Syria, 
Darius  gave  battle  to  the  Macedonians.  He  was  totally 
defeated ;  his  mother,  wife,  and  children  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  victor,  whose  generous  treatment  of  them  does  him 
eternal  honor.  Damascus,  where  the  treasure  and  baggage 
of  the  Persian  army  lay,  opened  its  gates  to  Parmenion, 
and  no  resistance  was  attempted  till  the  army  reached  Tyre. 
(Ol.  112,  1.) 

The  loss  of  the  Persians  at  Issus  is  said  to  have  been 
110,000  men,  that  of  the  Macedonians  only  450.  There 
were  in  the  army  of  Darius  30,000  Greek  mercenaries, 
10,000  of  whom  had  belonged  to  the  army  of  Memnon,  and 
had  come  by  sea  from  Lesbos  to  Phoenicia.     After  the  bat- 


ALEXANDER    THE    GREAT.  411 

tie,  12,000  of  these  men  marched  to  Tripolis,  and  got  aboard 
of  the  vessels  which  were  lying  there;  4090  of  them  sailed 
for  Egypt,  where  they  nearly  made  themselves  masters  of 
the  country ;  8000  proceeded  to  Greece,  where  Agis,  king 
of  Lacedaemon,  took  them  into  pay. 

Tyre  stood  a  siege  of  seven  months;  the  neighboring 
towns  and  country  all  submitted  ;  Egypt  joyfully  received 
the  conqueror.  While  here,  Alexander  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  city  named  from  himself,  which  soon  became  the 
great  emporium  of  the  trade  of  the  East ;  he  also  marched 
with  a  select  body  of  troops  through  the  desert  to  the  oasis 
in  which  the  temple  and  oracle  of  Aramon  lay,  and  had  him- 
self (probably  with  a  political  view  to  future  events)  pro- 
nounced by  the  priests  to  be  the  offspring  of  a  god. 

Hearing  that  Darius  had  assembled  another  army,  he 
quitted  Egypt  and  led  his  troops  over  the  Euphrates,  (Ol. 
112,  2,)  and  near  a  village  named  Arbela,  at  the  foot  of  the 
Carduchian  (Kurdish)  mountains,  he  came  up  with  the  host 
of  Darius,  estimated  at  a  million  of  men,  while  his  own 
could  not  at  most  have  exceeded  fifty  thousand.  Victory, 
as  usual,  declared  for  the  Europeans :  Darius  fled  to  the 
northern  provinces.  Alexander  first  took  Babylon,  and  then 
Susa,  where  he  found  immense  treasures  ;  he  next  advanced 
to  Persepolis,  where  he  remained  four  months.  The  fol- 
lowing year  (Ol.  112,  3)  he  directed  his  course  northwards 
to  Ecbatana  in  Media,  expecting  to  find  Darius  there. 
Learning  that  the  unhappy  prince  was  now  a  captive  in  the 
hands  of  Bessus,  satrap  of  Bactria,  (Balkh,)  and  two  other  of 
the  Persian  nobles,  he  pursued  them  so  closely,  that,  unable  to 
convey  their  captive  with  them,  they  mortally  wounded  and 
left  him  on  the  road,  where  he  was  found  by  Alexander. 
According  to  Oriental  maxims,  Alexander  was  now  the  right- 
ful king,  and  he  made  it  his  duty  to  avenge  the  death  of  his 
predecessor;  but  before  he  pursued  Bessus,  he  employed 
himself  in  reducing  Hyrcania,  Parthia,  and  the  rest  of  the 
country  round  the  Caspian.  All  the  present  Khorassan  sub- 
mitted :   he  then  entered  Arachosia,  (Affghanistan,)  where 


412  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

he  founded  an  Alexandria,  in  which  he  left  Menon  with  four 
thousand  Greeks.  Turning  northwards,  he  built  another 
city  of  the  same  name,  (Candahar,)  and  led  his  army  over 
the  snowy  Caucasus,  or  Paropamisus,  (Hindu  Ku,)  into 
Bactriana.  When  Bessus  heard  of  his  approach,  he  fled 
over  the  Oxus  (Amu)  into  Sogdiana ;  and  here  he  was 
seized  and  delivered  to  Alexander,  who  gave  him  up  to  the 
vengeance  of  the  brother  and  other  relatives  of  Darius. 
Crossing  the  Oxus,  (Ol.  112,  4,)  he  advanced  to  Mara- 
canda,  (Samarkand,)  where  he  remounted  his  cavalry  with 
the  excellent  horses  there  to  be  found,  and  he  then  moved 
on  to  the  fertile  country  beyond  the  Jaxartes,  (Sihon,  or 
Sir.)  He  spent  a  year  and  a  half  in  these  regions,  where  he 
founded  several  towns,  on  account  of  the  great  commerce 
of  which  they  have  been  at  all  times  the  seat.  To  give 
security  to  this  province,  he  reduced  most  of  the  strong  hill 
forts  which  surrounded  it. 

The  Macedonian  prince  now  prepared  to  lead  his  army 
into  India,  where  he  had  already,  with  a  view  to  this  expe- 
dition, formed  an  alliance  with  a  rajah  who  ruled  beyond 
the  Indus.  He  marched  (Ol.  113,  2)  from  Bactriana  to 
Candahar  in  ten  days,  thence  along  the  Choes  (Urgundab) 
to  Arigaeon,  (Cabul,)  and  along  the  River  Cophes  (Cabul) 
to  its  junction  with  the  Indus  at  Taxila,  (Attock.)  In  this 
country  the  Macedonians  met  tribes  far  more  valiant  than 
any  they  had  yet  encountered,  and  in  attacking  their  towns 
and  hill  forts  their  king  had  often  to  expose  his  own  person. 
This  people  were  the  ancestors  or  predecessors  of  the  Seeks, 
who  now  occupy  the  country,  and  whose  manners  are  nearly 
the  same  as  theirs. 

After  crossing  the  Indus,  the  march  was  easy,  as  the  coun- 
try thence  to  the  Hydaspes  (Behut)  obeyed  Taxilus,  the 
friendly  rajah,  who  now  became  the  vassal  of  the  conqueror. 
From  the  Hydaspes  to  the  Acesines,  (Chenab,)  reigned  a 
prince  named  Porus,  who  had  led  a  large  army  to  oppose 
the  invader's  passage  of  the  former  river.  The  passage, 
however,  was  forced,  the  Indian  army  totally  defeated,  and 


ALEXANDER    THE    GREAT.  413 

Poms  himself  made  a  prisoner;  but  Alexander,  acting  with 
his  usual  good  policy,  restored  to  him  his  kingdom.  He 
then  led  his  troops  over  the  Acesines,  and  conquered  all  the 
country  thence  to  the  Hydraotes,  (Ravi,)  which  river  he 
also  passed.  The  whole  of  the  country  thus  reduced  (the 
Punjab)  he  placed  under  the  dominion  of  Porus. 

The  conqueror  at  length  reached  the  banks  of  the  Hy- 
phasis,  or  Hypanis,  (Sutlej ;)  but  here  his  troops,  who,  since 
their  entrance  into  India,  had  only  had  toilsome  marching 
and  hard  fighting,  with  no  plunder  to  reward  them,  and  who 
now  heard  that  beyond  that  river  lay  a  desert  of  twelve  days' 
journey,  with  an  immense  and  warlike  population  on  the 
other  side  of  it,  began  to  murmur.  He  called  a  council 
of  his  generals,  and  it  was  decided  to  advance  no  further. 
(OI.  113,  3.)  The  word  was  given  to  return,  and  twelve 
altars  or  towers  were  erected  to  mark  the  point  which  they 
had  reached.  On  coming  to  the  Hydaspes,  he  collected  boats 
and  canoes,  and  with  a  part  of  his  army  sailed  along  it  to  its 
junction  with  the  Indus,  down  which  river  the  rest  of  the 
army  proceeded  in  the  same  manner.  He  then  advanced 
along  the  Indus,  reducing  the  various  nations  on  its  western 
side.  When  he  reached  Sinda,  he  sent  a  great  part  of  the 
army  away  under  Craterus,  with  directions  to  proceed 
through  Arachosia  and  Drangiana,  and  to  meet  him  in 
Carmania,  (Kerman ;)  and  having  reached  the  sea,  he  gave 
a  select  number  of  ships  to  Nearchus,  one  of  his  ablest 
generals,  with  orders  to  sail  along  the  coast  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Euphrates.  He  then,  with  his  army,  set  forth  on  his 
return  to  Persia  through  the  deserts  of  Gedrosia,  (Mekran,) 
of  the  terrors  of  which  he  was  quite  unaware.  The  suf- 
ferings of  the  army  were  extreme ;  a  vast  number  of  the 
men  and  all  the  beasts  of  burden  perished ;  all  the  baggage 
and  booty  were  abandoned  in  the  desert.  After  a  march  of 
sixty  days  they  reached  Carmania,  where  an  abundant 
supply  of  provisions  had  been  prepared  for  them.  Here 
Alexander  assembled  all  the  governors  of  provinces  and 
other  officers,  and  rewarded  or  punished  them  according  to 
'      35* 


414  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

their  desetts.  Having  feasted  and  refreshed  his  army,  he 
proceeded  to  Susa,  where  he  married  one  of  Darius'  daugh- 
ters himself,  and  gave  her  sister  to  his  friend  Hephaestion. 
It  being  his  design  to  unite  the  two  nations  as  much  as 
possible,  he  encouraged  his  officers  to  marry  Persian  ladies, 
and  gave  portions  not  only  to  these,  but  to  ten  thousand 
women  of  inferior  rank  whom  he  matched  with  his  soldiers. 
He  also  levied  large  bodies  of  Persian  troops,  whom  he 
incorporated  with  the  Macedonians,  which  caused  great 
discontent  among  the  Europeans,  who  had  reckoned  on 
appropriating  to  themselves  all  the  advantages  of  the  con- 
quest.    (Ol.  113,  4.) 

Quitting  Susa,  Alexander,  who  meditated  great  plans  of 
commerce  in  the  Persian  Gulf,  went  and  personally  inspected 
all  the  streams,  canals,  etc.,  in  the  country  about  the  lower 
Tigris.  He  then  (Ol.  114,  1)  repaired  to  Babylon,  where 
he  held  a  review  of  his  entire  army.  Here  a  general  mu- 
tiny broke  out ;  but  by  his  presence  of  mind  and  courage 
he  speedily  quelled  it.  At  Babylon,  which  he  intended  for 
the  capital  of  his  empire,  he  made  preparations  for  the  con- 
quest of  Arabia,  and  directed  the  constuction  of  a  haven 
and  dockyards  on  the  Persian  Gulf;  but  in  the  midst  of  his 
plans  a  fever,  the  consequence  probably  of  his  great  exer- 
tions of  mind  and  body,  carried  him  off,  in  the  thirty-third 
year  of  his  age,  and  all  his  mighty  projects  came  to  nought. 
(Ol.  114,  2.) 

We  have  somewhere  met  with  these  words,  "  Alexander, 
falsely  named  the  Great; "  and  did  we  not  know  the  natural 
imbecility  of  some  minds,  and  their  utter  want  of  percep- 
tion of  the  grand  and  the  sublime,  we  might  marvel  at  such 
language.  If  ever  man  was  truly  great,  it  was  Alexander. 
All  the  talents  and  all  the  virtues  that  ennoble  human  na- 
ture were  united  in  him.  A  statesman  and  general  of  the 
highest  order,  polished  in  manners,  fond  of  literature,  tem- 
perate in  pleasure,  faithful  to  his  word,  humane,  just  and 
generous,  —  what  was  wanting  to  complete  the  truly  great 
man  ?     That  he  was  covetous  of  fame,  is  to  his  praise  ;  that 


WAR    IN    GREECE.  415 

he  had  the  ambition  to  be  a  conqueror,  will  be  condemned 
only  by  those  who  expect  our  nature  to  be  different  from 
what  it  is ;  that  he  could  not  wholly  withstand  the  intoxica- 
tion of  power,  and  gave  way  to  fits  of  anger,  redeemed,  how- 
ever, by  speedy  and  sincere  repentance,  only  showed  that  he 
was  but  a  mortal.  Ever  must  the  conqueror  of  Persia  be  the 
object  of  wonder  and  admiration.  His  clemency  to  those 
he  subdued  is  gratifying  to  our  feelings ;  but  his  enlarged 
and  comprehensive  plan  of  forming  the  greater  part  of  the 
civilized  world  into  one  empire,  united  by  civil  and  com- 
mercial advantages,  excites  amazement,  joined  with  regret 
for  its  impracticability,  but  with  veneration  for  the  mind 
which  had  conceived  it. 


CHAPTER  IV.* 

WAR  IN    GREECE. DEMOSTHENES  AND  2ESCHINES.  HARPA- 

LUS     AT     ATHENS. LAMIAN     WAR. DEATH     OF      DEMOS^ 

THENES  ; HIS    CHARACTER. DEATH    OF    DEMADES. 

While  Alexander  was  thus  achieving  the  conquest  of  the 
East,  Greece  remained  in  general  tranquil ;  an  effort  of  the 
Lacedaemonians  to  cast  off  the  Macedonian  supremacy  alone 
disturbed  it. 

About  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Arbela,  (Ol.  112,  2,)  a  war 
broke  out  simultaneously  in  Thrace  and  in  Peloponnesus. 
In  the  former,  an  officer,  who  is  named  Memnon,  and  who 
was  probably  a  captain  of  mercenaries,  raised  the  standard 
of  revolt;  in  the  latter,  Agis,  one  of  the  Spartan  kings, 
having  taken  into  pay  eight  thousand  of  the  mercenaries 
who  had  escaped  from  Issus,  called  on  the  Greeks  to  re- 
sume their  independence.     His  call  was  attended  to  by  the 

*  Diodor.  xviii.  8—18,  24,  25.  Plut.  Phocion,  23—29.  Demosth. 
24—31. 


416  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Eleians,  the  Achaeans,  and  the  Arcadians,  (the  Megalopoli- 
tans  excepted,)  and  many  volunteers  came  from  the  other 
states;  but  no  people  without  the  Isthmus  shared  in  the 
enterprise.  The  Athenians,  in  particular,  were  now  so 
well  affected  to  Alexander,  that  even  Demosthenes  either 
would  not  or  could  not  excite  them  to  arms.  For  with  con- 
summate prudence,  the  Macedonian  prince  let  no  occasion 
pass  of  testifying  his  esteem  and  consideration  for  the  Athe- 
nian people.  After  the  battle  of  the  Granicus,  he  sent 
them  a  part  of  the  booty  to  adorn  their  temples  :  at  Issus, 
where  he  found  ambassadors  from  the  Grecian  states  in  the 
camp  of  Darius,  he  carried  with  him,  as  prisoners,  the  La- 
cedaemonian ministers,  while  he  dismissed  the  Athenians 
with  honor;  at  Tyre,  when  he  met  there  on  his  return 
from  Egypt  the  Paralian  trireme,  with  envoys  sent  to  re- 
quest the  liberty  of  the  Athenians  taken  at  the  Granicus, 
he  granted  their  request  without  hesitation ;  from  Susa 
he  sent  them  the  statues  of  Harmodius  and  Aristogeiton, 
which  Xerxes  had  carried  away  from  Athens. 

The  affairs  of  Peloponnesus  being  the  most  formidable, 
Antipater,  having  settled  those  of  Thrace  as  well  as  he 
could  for  the  present,  set  out  thither  with  all  the  forces  he 
could  collect.  On  the  way  he  was  joined  by  the  troops  of 
the  allied  states,  and  he  entered  Peloponnesus  at  the  head 
of  40,000  men.  Agis,  who  was  besieging  Megalopolis  with 
20,000  foot  and  2000  horse,  gave  him  battle  near  that 
town ;  and  after  an  obstinate  conflict,  in  which  the  gallant 
Spartan  king  and  five  thousand  of  his  troops  fell  on  the 
one  side,  and  three  thousand  five  hundred  men  on  the  other, 
victory  remained  with  Antipater.  As  he  had  yet  to  arrange 
the  affairs  of  Thrace,  and  could  not  keep  his  army  long  to- 
gether, he  used  his  victory  with  moderation,  only  requiring 
of  the  Spartans  to  send  a  humble  embassy  to  the  East  to 
sue  for  pardon. 

The  year  in  which  Alexander  became  monarch  of  the  East, 
(Ol.  112,  3,)  witnessed  the  most  remarkable  combat  of  ora- 
tory that  has  ever  occurred.     Shortly  before  the  battle  of 


DEMOSTHENES    AND    JESCHINES.  417 

ChsBroneia,  Ctesiphon,  a  friend  of  Demosthenes,  had  moved 
that  the  orator  should  be  crowned  with  a  golden  crown  on 
account  of  his  public  services.  ^Eschines  immediately  ac- 
cused Ctesiphon  of  violation  of  law,  {nttQavtyuov ,)  as  Demos- 
thenes held  a  public  office,  (of  repairing  the  walls,)  and  had 
not  yet  stood  the  Euthyne,  and  as  Ctesiphon  proposed  that 
the  crowning  of  Demosthenes  should  be  proclaimed  in  the 
theatre  of  Bacchus.  Various  causes  delayed  the  trial  for 
ten  years  ;  at  length  it  came  on,  and  numbers  resorted  from 
all  parts  of  Greece  to  witness  it.  ^Eschines  put  forth  his 
entire  strength;  he  quoted  the  laws,  he  arraigned  the  whole 
political  life  of  Demosthenes,  and  defended  his  own :  the 
Macedonian  party  were  naturally  in  his  favor.  Demosthenes, 
for  whom  the  attack  was  really  intended,  in  a  speech  of  un- 
rivalled energy  and  power,  justified  his  own,  and  impugned 
his  opponent's  political  conduct ;  and  in  the  eyes  of  assembled 
Greece,  his  fellow-citizens  declared  so  unanimously  their 
conviction  of  the  purity  of  his  patriotism,  that  the  prosecutor, 
though  the  letter  of  the  law  was  with  him,  did  not  get  a 
fifth  of  the  votes,  and  consequently  had  to  go  into  exile. 

How  little  is  popular  favor  to  be  relied  on !  Six  years 
afterwards,  (Ol.  114,  1,)  Demosthenes  was  himself  an  exile: 
the  following  was  the  occasion.  Among  those  who,  in  the 
time  of  Philip,  supported  the  cause  of  Alexander  and  his 
mother  so  strenuously  as  to  be  obliged  to  quit  Macedonia, 
was  a  man  named  Harpalus.  The  grateful  prince,  on  com- 
ing to  the  throne,  promoted  them  all,  and  Harpalus  became 
his  treasurer.  He  was  at  Ecbatana  when  Alexander  set  out 
for  India;  and  probably  expecting  that  he  would  never 
return,  he  gave  a  loose  to  his  appetites,  and  squandered  the 
royal  treasure  with  the  most  reckless  profusion.  But  when 
he  heard  of  the  rigid  justice  his  sovereign  was  exercising 
in  Gedrosia,  he  deemed  his  only  safety  to  be  in  flight ;  and 
taking  with  him  five  thousand  talents,  and  a  corps  of  six 
thousand  mercenaries,  he  came  down  to  the  coast,  and  sail- 
ing to  Cape  Taenaron,  left  his  troops  there,  and,  proceeding 
with    his    treasure   to   Athens,  became   a   suppliant   to  the 

AAA 


41S  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

people.  Some  advised  to  receive  him  ;  Demosthenes  urged 
to  drive  him  away,  and  not  to  plunge  the  state  into  a  war. 
It  was  said,  however,  that  Harpalus  persuaded  the  orator  to 
accept  twenty  talents  and  be  silent  in  the  assembly,  and  that 
Demosthenes  appeared  next  day  with  his  throat  muffled  up, 
as  if  he  had  the  quinsy.  Harpalus  was,  however,  forced  to 
depart ;  the  people  kept  his  treasure  for  the  king,  as  they 
said  to  Antipater  when  he  demanded  it.  On  the  motion  of 
Demosthenes,  the  Areiopagus  instituted  an  inquiry  respect- 
ing the  bribery;  and  Demosthenes  himself,  being  found 
guilty,  was  fined  fifty  talents,  and,  as  his  property  amounted 
only  to  twenty,  he  was  cast  into  prison  till  he  should  pay  the 
remainder.  His  escape,  however,  was  connived  at,  and  he 
took  up  his  abode  at  Trcezen  and  JEgina,  whence,  with 
tears  in  his  eyes,  he  used  to  regard  the  opposite  coast  of 
Attica. 

Demosthenes  himself  constantly  denied  having  taken 
money  from  Harpalus,  and  strong  evidence  was  given  in 
disproof  of  the  charge.*  Those  who  are  disposed  to  think 
favorably  of  him  will,  therefore,  see  in  the  whole  affair  only 
an  instance  of  the  influence  of  the  Macedonian  party. 

When  the  news  of  the  death  of  Alexander  arrived  in 
Europe,  a  war  —  the  last  struggle  of  Greece  for  indepen- 
dence—  broke  out.  This  war  had  been,  however,  already 
in  preparation  from  the  following  cause.  Alexander,  wish- 
ing to  obviate  any  disturbance  in  Greece  which  might  inter- 
fere with  the  plans  he  meditated,  f  and  desirous,  for  this 
purpose,  to  have  a  party  in  each  state  bound  to  him  by  the 
ties  of  gratitude  and  interest,  resolved  to  restore  all  political 


*  Pausanias,  ii.  33,  3.  "  Providence,"  says  Niebuhr,  "which  permit- 
ted the  honor  of  the  most  magnanimous  of  all  statesmen  to  be  long  de- 
graded in  the  judgment  of  the  credulous,  has  caused  all  the  circum- 
stances of  the  transaction  to  be  so  well  preserved,  that  the  vileness  of 
the  calumny  is  as  apparent  as  if  we  were  his  contemporaries."  See 
the  Philological  Museum,  vol.  i.  p.  497. 

t  This  explains  why  every  effort  should  be  made  to  remove  Demos- 
thenes from  Athens. 


THE    LAMIAN    WAR.  419 

exiles  to  their  country.  For  this  purpose  he  sent  a  letter, 
addressed  to  the  exiles,  which  was  read  aloud  by  the  herald 
at  the  Olympic  games.  (Ol.  114,  1.)  The  exiles,  of  whom 
more  than  twenty  thousand  were  present,  received  the 
announcement  with  delight,  and  most  states  willingly  re- 
admitted them.  But  the  Athenians  and  the  iEtolians  heard 
the  letter  read  with  dislike  and  apprehension ;  for  the  former 
saw,  that  by  its  tenor,  they  would  be  called  on  to  restore  to 
the  Samians  the  lands  which  they  had  seized  forty  years 
before,  and  divided  among  their  colonists;  the  ^Etolians 
had  similar  fears  respecting  the  tribe  of  the  CEniades,  whom 
they  had  expelled  and  seized  their  lands. 

The  Athenians  secretly  directed  Leosthenes,  an  able 
officer,  to  take  into  pay,  as  it  were  on  his  own  account,  the 
mercenaries  left  by  Harpalus  at  Taenaron,  who,  with  those 
that  had  joined  them  there,  amounted  to  eight  thousand 
men,  all  experienced  soldiers.  He  did  as  directed,  and  An- 
tipater's  suspicions  were  not  awakened.  As  soon,  however, 
as  the  death  of  Alexander  was  known  for  certain,  the 
Athenians  sent  Leosthenes  a  part  of  Harpalus'  treasure 
and  several  suits  of  armor,  and  desired  him  to  act  openly 
for  the  advantage  of  the  state.  He  accordingly  passed  over 
with  his  troops  to  ^Etolia,  were  he  was  joyfully  received, 
and  joined  by  six  thousand  men ;  he  then  sent  to  invite  the 
Locrians,  Phocians,  and  neighboring  peoples,  to  rise  in  the 
cause  of  independence.  (Ol.  114,  2.) 

At  Athens,  the  wealthy  part  of  the  people,  who  enjoyed 
the  advantages  of  peace,  and  whose  property  was  increasing 
every  day,  were  strongly  adverse  to  the  idea  of  a  war,  the 
expenses  of  which  they  knew  would  fall  on  them ;  but  they 
were  far  outnumbered  in  the  assembly  by  those  who  looked 
for  gain  from  war,  or  who  had  been  animated  by  Demos- 
thenes with  the  old  Athenian  spirit.  A  decree  was  made 
to  get  ready  forty  triremes  and  two  hundred  quatriremes, 
and  directing  that  all  Athenians,  under  forty  years  of  age, 
should  serve;  seven  phyles  to  take  the  field,  three  to  remain 
and  guard  the  country ;  and  that  embassies  should  be  sent  to 


420 


HISTOIIY    OF    GREECE. 


all  Grecian  states,  to  inform  them  that  the  .Athenians  were, 
as  of  old,  prepared  to  risk  every  thing  for  the  independence 
of  Greece.  The  embassies  wore  in  general  favorably  re- 
ceived; but  prudent  people  thought  that  the  Athenians  were 
acting  with  more  zeal  than  discretion. 

The  Lacedaemonians,  (who,  with  their  usual  pride,  would 
not  serve  under  the  Athenians,)  the  Arcadians,  and  the 
A chaeans,  remained  neuter ;  the  Corinthians  were  kept  from 
joining  by  the  garrison  in  their  citadel,  and  the  Boeotians  by 
their  self-interest.     All  the  other  states  shared  in  the  war. 

The  Athenians  sent  a  force  of  five  thousand  foot  and  five 
hundred  horse  of  their  own  citizens,  and  two  thousand  mer- 
cenaries, to  join  Leosthenes  in  JEtolia.  The  Boeotians,  to 
whom  Alexander  had  given  the  Theban  territory,  knowing 
that,  if  the  Athenians  were  successful,  one  of  their  first  acts 
would  be  the  restoration  of  Thebes,  and  whom  self-interest 
therefore  attached  to  the  Macedonian  cause,  posted  them- 
selves at  Plataea  to  oppose  their  progress;  but  Leosthenes 
hastened  with  a  division  of  his  troops  to  join  the  Athenians, 
and  their  united  forces  defeated  the  Boeotians.  He  then  ad- 
vanced to  Pyla3,  and  awaited  the  approach  of  the  Macedo- 
nians on  the  Thessalian  side  of  the  pass. 

As  Macedonia  had  been  greatly  drained  of  men  by  the 
constant  demand  for  them  in  Asia,  Antipater,  when  the  war 
broke  out,  sent  to  Craterus,  who  was  in  Cilicia  with  the 
discharged  Macedonians,  whom  he  was  leading  home,  beg- 
ging of  him  to  hasten  to  his  aid.  He  also  applied  to  Leon- 
natus,  who  commanded  in  Phrygia,  offering  him  his  daughter 
in  marriage,  then  placing  himself  at  the  head  of  thirteen 
thousand  foot  and  six  hundred  horse,  he  entered  Thessaly. 
A  fine  body  of  Thessalian  cavalry  joined  his  standard,  but 
at  the  solicitation  of  the  Athenians  they  went  over  to  Leos- 
thenes. The  Macedonians  were  in  consequence  totally 
defeated,  and  Antipater,  unable  to  effect  his  return  through 
Thessaly,  was  obliged  to  shut  himself  up  in  the  town  of 
Lamia.  Leosthenes  came  and  encamped  before  the  town  : 
he  drew  out  his  forces  and  offered  battle  to  no  purpose,  and 


THE    LAMIAN    WAR.  421 

his  assaults  were  repelled,  for  the  town  was  strongly  fortified  : 
he  therefore  converted  the  siege  into  a  blockade,  relying  on 
the  aid  of  famine.  The  ^Etolians,  having  obtained  his  per- 
mission, took  the  opportunity  of  returning  home  for  some 
time  to  arrange  their  national  affairs. 

Leosthenes,  it  is  evident,  was  a  man  of  ability  ;  but  for- 
tune, who  would  have  the  Greeks  humbled,  soon  deprived 
them  of  his  services.  Antipater  one  day  sallied  out  and  fell 
on  the  party  who  were  sinking  the  ditch  round  the  town : 
Leosthenes  hurried  to  the  aid  of  his  men ;  a  stone  struck  him 
on  the  head,  and  he  was  carried  senseless  to  the  camp,  where 
he  expired  on  the  third  day.  The  Athenian  people  buried 
him  with  heroic  honors ;  and  as  Demosthenes  was  in  exile, 
the  task  of  pronouncing  his  funeral  oration  was  committed 
to  Hypereides,  the  orator  next  in  repute.  Antiphilus,  a  man 
also  of  ability,  succeeded  Leosthenes  in  his  command. 

Leonnatus  lost  no  time  in  coming  to  the  aid  of  Antipa- 
ter :  he  -passed  over  to  Europe,  and  having  collected  what 
troops  he  could  in  Macedonia,  entered  Thessaly  with  up- 
wards of  twenty  thousand  foot  and  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred horse.  The  Greeks,  when  they  heard  of  his  approach, 
set  fire  to  their  camp  before  Lamia;  and  having  placed  their 
baggage  and  useless  persons  in  the  town  of  Meliteia,  ad- 
vanced to  give  him  battle  before  he  should  be  joined  by 
Antipater.  They  had  now  but  twenty-two  thousand  foot, 
as  the  zEtolians  and  several  others  were  absent ;  but  their 
horse  amounted  to  upwards  of  three  thousand  five  hundred, 
of  which  two  thousand  were  Thessalians,  led  by  their  gal- 
lant chief  Menon.  When  the  armies  met,  the  horse  on  both 
sides  engaged :  Leonnatus,  fighting  gallantly,  received  sev- 
eral wounds,  of  which  he  died  when  carried  to  the  rear.  The 
advantage  was  decisive  on  the  part  of  the  Greeks;  and  the 
Macedonian  phalanx,  fearing  the  charges  of  their  cavalry, 
retired  to  the  neighboring  heights,  where  next  day  they 
were  joined  by  Antipater,  who  took  the  command ;  but,  on 
account  of  the  superiority  of  the  Greeks  in  cavalry,  he  kept 
to  the  heights,  not  venturing  to  descend  into  the  plain. 
36 


422  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Craterus  was  meantime  on  his  way  to  relieve  Antipater. 
He  set  out  with  six  thousand  of  the  veterans,  and  on  his 
march  he  picked  up  four  thousand  more ;  he  had  one  thou- 
sand Persian  archers  and  slingers,  and  one  thousand  five 
hundred  horse.  On  reaching  Thessaly,  he  placed  his  troops 
under  the  command  of  Antipater,  who  now  encamped  on 
the  banks  of  the  Peneius  with  forty  thousand  hoplites,  three 
thousand  light  troops,  and  five  thousand  horse.  The  Greeks, 
whose  numbers  were  greatly  reduced  by  the  absence  of  the 
iEtolians  and  others  who  had  not  returned,  and  who  at  best 
were,  with  the  exception  of  the  mercenaries,  nothing  but 
militia,  carefully  avoided  a  general  action,  more  especially 
as  their  numbers  were  not  one  half  of  those  of  the  enemy. 
At  length,  however,  Antipater  succeeded  in  bringing  them 
to  an  engagement  near  the  town  of  Crannon.  The  Athenians 
and  Thessalians  fought  worthy  of  their  fame ;  the  victory 
was  undecided,  but  this  battle  ended  the  independence  of 
Greece.  The  leaders  of  the  allied  army  saw  that  it  was 
useless  to  struggle  against  the  might  of  Macedonia,  while 
the  greater  part  of  the  Greeks  contented  themselves  with 
being  mere  spectators  of  the  conflict;  they  therefore  sent 
proposals  of  peace  to  Antipater.  He  required,  however,  that 
each  state  should  treat  separately  :  the  Greeks  hesitated  :  he 
and  Craterus  attacked  and  reduced  the  Thessalian  towns 
one  after  another.  The  Thessalians  were  thus  obliged  to 
make  a  separate  peace;  other  states  followed  their  example; 
and  at  length  the  Athenians  and  yEtolians  were  left  alone. 

Antipater  was  about  to  lead  his  forces  into  Attica,  and 
the  people,  seeing  no  hopes  of  being  able  to  resist  him,  sent 
an  embassy  to  sue  for  peace.  The  deputies  sent  were, 
Demades,  who  had  been  thrice  made  atimous,  and  who  was 
now  restored  to  his  civic  rights  that  he  might  use  his  in- 
fluence in  behalf  of  his  country  ;  the  noble  Phocion,  who 
was  on  the  most  intimate  terms  with  Antipater  ;  the  Pla- 
tonic philosopher  Xenocrates,  and  some  others.  Phocion 
and  Demades  met  with  a  friendly  reception  ;  but  the  terms 
granted  were  the  hardest  that  Antipater,  under  present  cir- 


DEATH    OF    DEMOSTHENES.  423 

cumstances,  could  impose.  He  required  that  the  Athenian 
constitution  should  be  altered ;  that  the  government  should 
be  placed  in  the  hands  of  those  who  had  above  20  minas  of 
property,  and  who  alone  should  have  a  right  to  vote  in  the 
assemblies ;  to  those  under  that  class  he  offered  to  give  lands 
in  Thrace :  he  insisted  that  Demosthenes  and  Hypereides 
should  be  given  up  to  his  vengeance,  and  a  Macedonian 
garrison  received  into  the  Munychia. 

Upwards  of  twelve  thousand  citizens  were  thus  disfran- 
chised, a  part  of  whom  migrated  to  Thrace;  those  who 
had  the  requisite  property  and  remained  amounted  to  nine 
thousand.  Fortunately  for  Athens,  Phocion,  whose  virtues 
(whatever  might  have  been'  thought  of  his  politics)  no  one 
could  dispute,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  new  govern- 
ment; and  by  his  wise  regulations  and  the  enjoyment  of 
peace,  though  the  independence  of  the  state  was  gone,  the 
fortunes  of  the  individual  citizens  rapidly  increased.  It  is, 
however,  a  remarkable  fact,  that  Athens  never  again  raised 
her  head,  and  she  is  henceforth  one  of  the  most  insignificant 
states  in  Greece ;  chiefly  distinguished  by  the  baseness  of  her 
adulation  of  the  Graeco-Macedonic  kings  of  Europe  and  Asia,* 
and  of  the  senate  and  generals  of  the  Roman  republic. 

The  fate  of  the  mighty  orator,  of  him  who  had  roused  his 
country  to  her  expiring  efforts  for  her  lost  supremacy,  must 
claim  the  sympathy  of  every  generous  mind. 

When  the  Athenians  sent  ambassadors,  calling  on  the 
Greeks  to  unite  against  Antipater,  Demosthenes,  though  an 
exile,  joined  them,  and,  as  usual,  rose  superior  to  the  advo- 
cates of  Macedonia.  The  Athenian  people,  now  free  to  act, 
joyfully  passed  a  decree  for  his  recall :  a  trireme  was  sent 
to  fetch  him  from  ^Egina  :  magistrates,  priests,  and  people 
poured  forth  to  meet  him  as  he  came  from  the  Pirseeus.  He 
stretched  forth  his  hands  and  blessed  the  day,  pronouncing 
his  return  more  glorious  than  that  of  Alcibiades,  for  his 
fellow-citizens  received  him  through  persuasion,  not  by 
force.     As  the  fine  still  hung  over  him,  the  people,  to  elude 

*  Polyb.  v.  106. 


424  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

the  law,  appointed  him  to  adorn  the  altar  of  Zeus  the  Sa- 
vior, and  assigned  him  thirty  talents  for  the  purpose. 

Demosthenes,  Hypereides,  and  some  others,  as  soon  as  they 
heard  of  the  battle  of  Crannon,  knowing  that  all  was  over, 
withdrew  secretly  from  the  city.  A  sentence  of  death  was 
passed  on  them  by  the  people,  at  the  proposal  of  Demades, 
in  order  to  propitiate  Antipater  ;  and  a  man  named  Archias, 
who  had  earned  for  himself  the  opprobrious  title  of  Exile- 
hunter,  (cpvyadoOi\qag})  was  sent  with  soldiers,  by  Antipater, 
to  seize  them.  He  dragged  Hypereides  and  two  others  from 
the  ^Eaceion  in  ^Egina,  where  they  had  taken  refuge,  and 
sent  them  to  Antipater  at  Cleonre,  by  whom  they  were  put 
to  death.  Hearing  that  Demosthenes  had  taken  sanctuary 
at  the  temple  of  Poseidon,  in  the  little  isle  of  Calauria,  the 
Exile-hunter  proceeded  thither.  After  vainly  seeking  to  in- 
duce him  to  quit  the  temple  and  go  with  him  to  Antipater, 
assuring  him  he  would  sustain  no  injury,  he  began  to 
threaten  :  Demosthenes  replied,  "  Wait  a  little,  till  I  write 
a  few  words  home,"  and  went  into  the  temple;  and  taking 
a  book,  as  if  to  write,  he  put  the  top  of  the  pen  into  his 
mouth,  as  in  the  act  of  thought ;  having  held  it  there  some 
time,  he  wrapped  his  head  in  his  cloak,  and  reclined.  The 
guards  at  the  door  mocked  him  as  a  coward :  Archias  came, 
and  desiring  him  to  rise,  repeated  his  former  promises.  Feel- 
ing the  poison  he  had  taken  now  beginning  to  operate,  he 
uncovered  his  head,  and  repelling  Archias,  said,  "  O  beloved 
Poseidon,  I  rise  from  thy  fane  while  I  am  yet  alive  ;  even  thy 
temple  is  not  left  unprofaned  by  Antipater  and  the  Macedo- 
nians." He  desired  them  to  support  him,  then  tottered  on, 
and  dropped  dead  as  he  was  passing  the  altar.  His  death, 
it  was  observed,  took  place  during  the  festival  of  the  Thes- 
mophoria,  on  the  day  on  which  the  women  fasted  sitting  on 
the  ground,  in  commemoration  of  the  grief  of  the  goddess. 

The  philosopher  Pansetius  remarked,  that  the  speeches  of 
Demosthenes  were  distinguished  by  the  preference  which 
they  evinced  of  the  morally  beautiful  (t6  xa\bi>)  to  the  agree- 
able, the  easy,  and  the  advantageous.  We  have  observed 
above  that  he  rated  the  Athenian  people  too  high ;  but  who 


CHARACTER    OF    DEMOSTHENES.  425 

can  avoid  admiring  the  steadfastness  and  consistency  of  his 
whole  political  life?  "His  politics,"  says  Heeren,  "  came 
forth  from  the  recesses  of  his  soul :  he  remained  true  to  his 
feelings  and  his  conviction,  spite  of  all  change  of  relations, 
of  all  menacing  dangers.  Hence  was  he  the  most  powerful 
of  orators,  since  no  compromise  with  his  conviction,  no  half- 
yielding,  no  symptom  of  weakness  in  general  is  visible  in 
him.  This  is  the  true  kernel  of  his  art;  all  the  rest  is  only 
the  shell.  In  this  how  high  does  he  tower  above  Cicero ! 
But  who  has  ever  suffered  more  severely  for  this  greatness 
than  he?  Among  all  political  characters,  Demosthenes  is 
the  most  highly  and  purely  tragic  that  history  is  acquainted 
with.  When,  still  penetrated  by  the  tremendous  power  of 
his  words,  we  peruse  his  life  in  Plutarch,  when  we  transfer 
ourselves  to  his  times,  to  his  position,  we  are  carried  away 
by  a  sympathy  such  as  the  hero  of  an  epic  or  a  tragedy  could 
hardly  excite.  From  his  first  appearance,  to  the  moment 
when  he  takes  the  poison  in  the  temple,  we  behold  him  in 
conflict  with  a  destiny  that  seems  almost  cruelly  to  mock 
him :  it  flings  him  down  repeatedly,  but  never  conquers 
him.  What  a  flood  of  feelings  must  have  assailed  his  manly 
bosom  in  this  change  of  reviving  and  cheated  hopes !  How 
naturally  did  the  furrows  of  melancholy  and  indignation, 
which  we  still  perceive  on  his  image,  plough  themselves  into 
that  serious  countenance  !  "  * 

Demosthenes  was  naturally  the  object  of  virulent  slander 
in  his  own  day,  and  he  was,  of  course,  accused  of  taking 
bribes.  Space  does  not  allow  of  our  examining  the  several 
charges;  but  we  will  ask  what  credit  can  be  given  to  the  as- 
sertion of  iEschines,  who  describes  him  as  bribed  by  Philip? 
As  to  his  having  received  money  from  the  court  of  Persia, 
we  may  allow  the  charge  to  be  true,  and  yet  see  little  reason 
to  condemn  him.  Different  times  have  different  modes  of 
viewing  the  same  acts  ;  the  name  of  Algernon  Sydney  is, 

*  Would  it  not  have  augmented  the  orator's  melancholy  to  have 
known  that,  2000  years  after  his  death,  every  disingenuous  art  would 
be  employed  to  defame  him  ? 


36 


B  B  B 


426  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

in  genera],  by  ourselves  regarded  as  synonymous  with  pa- 
triotism, yet  he  received  presents  from  Louis  XIV.  of  France 
to  aid  him  in  pursuing  a  policy  which  he  conscientiously 
followed,*  and  which  the  monarch  deemed  to  be  for  his  ad- 
vantage also.  May  not  the  same  have  been  the  case  with  the 
A  thenian  ?  May  he  not  have  thought  the  interests  of  Athens 
and  Persia  to  be  the  same,  and  himself  justified  in  supporting 
the  common  cause  with  Persian  gold?  We  believe  that  the 
more  closely  the  history  of  Demosthenes  is  viewed,  the 
greater  and  purer  will  he  appear ;  the  charges  made  against 
him  will  fade  to  nothing,  and  little  remain  but  want  of  phys- 
ical courage,  too  steadfast  a  continuance  in  a  line  of  policy 
whose  success  had  become  hopeless,  and  an  occasional  em- 
ployment of  the  artifices  common  to  political  leaders. 

Should  we  tell  the  end  of  the  vile  Demades?  He  was  sent 
some  time  after  to  Antipater  to  request  him  to  withdraw  the 
garrison  from  the  Munychia ;  but  among  the  papers  of 
Perdiccas  had  been  found  a  letter  from  Demades  to  him, 
inviting  him  to  come  and  deliver  Greece  from  Antipater. 
The  Macedonian  had  heard  of  that  letter,  and  Demades  and 
his  son  were  put  to  death  by  his  orders. 


CHAPTER   V.t 

POLYSPERCHON    AND     CASSANDER.  DEATH     OF     PHOCION.  

SIEGE  OF  MEGALOPOLIS.  —  CONTESTS    IN   GREECE.  DEME- 
TRIUS POLIORCETES  IN  GREECE  AND    IN    ASIA. IRRUPTION 

OF      THE       GAULS. PYRRHUS       IN       PELOPONNESUS; HIS 

DEATH. jETOLIAN  AND  ACIIiEAN  LEAGUES.  ARATUS. 

The  early  death  of  Alexander,  and  the  want  of  an  heir  to 
his  crown  capable  of  assuming  the  government,  inspired  his 

*  Hallam,  Const.  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ii.  pp.  272—274,  4to  edit. 
t  Diodor.  xviii.  48,  49,  54—57,  64—75;  xix.  85,  30,  49—54,  60— 64, 
74,  75.     Plutarch,  Phocion,  31—37,  Demetrius,  Pyrrhus,  Ar&tus. 


POLYSPERCHON    AND    CASSANDER.  427 

generals  with  the  ambition  of  becoming  independent  sove- 
reigns in  various  parts  of  his  enormous  empire.*  The  sword 
was  speedily  drawn,  and  numerous  battles  by  land  and  by 
sea  were  fought.  These  wars,  however,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  the  kingdoms  to  which  they  gave  rise,  belong  not 
strictly  to  Grecian  history ;  we  will  therefore  only  touch 
on  such  points  as  immediately  relate  to  Greece. 

Antipater,  after  the  termination  of  the  Lamian  war,  passed 
over  to  Asia,  and  took  part  in  the  affairs  there.  Being  ap- 
pointed guardian  to  the  Kings,  as  the  children  and  relatives 
of  Alexander  were  called,  he  returned  to  Macedonia,  leading 
them  with  him. 

During  his  absence  in  Asia,  the  JEtolians,  at  the  instiga- 
tion, it  is  said,  of  Perdiccas,  resumed  arms  and  entered  Thes- 
saly,  where  they  were  joined  by  numbers,  and  their  united 
forces  amounted  to  twenty-five  thousand  foot  and  one  thou- 
sand five  hundred  horse.  It  is  probable  that  the  troops 
of  Polysperchon,  whom  Antipater  had  left  in  his  place  in 
Macedonia,  would  not  have  been  able  to  meet  this  army  ;  but 
luckily  for  him,  the  Acarnanians  seized  this  occasion  of  in- 
vading ^Etolia;  and  the  JEtolians  hastening  home  to  de- 
fend their  property,  Polysperchon  defeated  the  remainder, 
and  reduced  Thessaly  to  its  previous  state  of  subjection. 

Antipater  died  (01.  115,  3)  shortly  after  his  return  to 
Macedonia.  He  directed  that  Polysperchon,  his  ancient 
mate  in  arms,  should  succeed  him  in  his  office,  while  to  his 
son  Cassander  he  left  only  the  second  place.  ButCassander, 
an  ambitious  youth,  looked  upon  his  father's  authority  as 
his  inheritance ;  and  relying  on  the  aid  of  the  aristocratic 
party  in  the  Grecian  states,  of  Ptolemaeus,  who  ruled  in 
Egypt,  and  of  Antigonus,  the  most  powerful  general  in 
Asia,  he  resolved  to  dispute  it  with  Polysperchon.  Under 
pretext  of  going  a-hunting,  he  escaped  out  of  Macedonia, 
and  passed  over  to  Asia  to  concert  matters  with  Antigonus. 

Polysperchon,  seeing  war   inevitable,   resolved  to  detach 

*  They  were  named  the  Successors,  (<Jtu<Jo/oi.) 


428  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Greece,  if  possible,  from  Cassander.  Knowing  that  the 
oligarchies  established  in  the  different  states  by  Antipater 
would  be  likely  to  espouse  the  cause  of  his  son,  he  issued  a 
pompous  edict,  in  the  name  of  the  Kings,  restoring  the  de- 
mocracies. He  also  wrote  to  Argos,  and  other  towns,  di- 
recting the  people  to  put  to  death  and  banish  those  who 
had  been  most  attached  to  Antipater,  that  they  might  not 
be  in  a  condition  to  aid  Cassander. 

At  Athens,  (Ol.  115,  4,)  Nicanor,  who  commanded  in 
the  Munychia,  finding  that  the  people  were  inclined  to- 
ward Polysperchon,  secretly  collected  troops,  and  seized 
the  Piraeus.  The  people  sent  to  him  Phocion,  Conon  the 
son  of  Timotheus,  and  Clearchus,  men  of  distinction,  and 
his  friends  ;  but  to  no  purpose.  A  letter  also  came  to  him 
from  Olympias,  Alexander's  mother,  whom  Polysperchon 
had  recalled  from  Epeirus,  and  given  the  charge  of  her  infant 
grandson,  ordering  him  to  surrender  both  the  Munychia 
and  the  Piraeus ;  but  to  as  little  effect.  Finally,  Poly- 
sperchon's  son  Alexander  entered  Attica  with  an  army, 
and  encamped  before  the  Piraeus.  Phocion  and  other 
chiefs  of  the  aristocracy  went  to  Alexander,  and  advised 
him  not  to  give  these  places  up  to  the  people,  but  to  hold 
them  himself  till  the  contest  with  Cassander  should  be  ter- 
minated. They  feared,  it  is  evident,  for  their  own  safety, 
and  not  without  reason  ;  for  the  people,  ferocious  with  the 
recovery  of  power,  soon  after  held  an  assembly,  in  which 
they  deposed  all  the  former  magistrates,  appointed  the 
most  furious  democrats  in  their  room,  and  passed  sentences 
of  death,  banishment,  and  confiscation  of  goods  on  those 
who  had  governed  under  the  oligarchy. 

Phocion  and  his  friends  fled  to  Alexander,  who  received 
them  kindly,  and  sent  them  with  letters  in  their  favor  to 
his  father,  who  was  now  in  Phocis.  The  Athenians  also 
despatched  an  embassy,  and,  yielding  to  motives  of  interest, 
Polysperchon  sent  his  suppliants  prisoners  to  Athens,  to 
stand  a  trial  for  their  lives  before  the  tribunal  of  an  anarchic 
mob.     Neither  slaves  nor  strangers  were  excluded  from  the 


DEATH    OF    PHOCION.  429 

assembly  convened  for  the  judicial  murder.  Many  of  those 
who  had  been  banished  by  Antipater  and  other  political 
enemies  of  the  prisoners,  came  forward  and  accused  them 
of  being  the  cause  of  the  enslavement  of  their  country  and 
the  dissolution  of  the  democracy  after  the  Lamian  war. 
Phocion  rose  to  reply  :  his  voice  was  drowned  by  the  yells 
of  the  rabble.  Silence  being  restored,  he  rose  again  ;  again 
his  voice  was  drowned  by  clamor.  He  continued  to  speak, 
but  could  only  be  heard  by  those  who  were  close  to  him  ; 
at  length,  despairing  of  safety,  he  cried  out  to  them  to  con- 
demn him  to  death,  but  to  spare  the  rest.  Still  the  uproar 
continued ;  some  of  his  friends  rose  to  speak,  but  the  yells 
and  cries  were  redoubled.  The  prisoners  were  condemned 
and  led  off  to  prison,  followed  by  the  tears  of  their  friends 
and  the  triumphant  execrations  of  their  mean-spirited  ene- 
mies. They  drank  the  fatal  hemlock-juice,  and  their  bodies 
were  cast  unburied  beyond  the  confines  of  Attica. 

Four  days  after  the  death  of  Phocion,  Cassander  arrived 
at  the  Piroeeus  with  thirty-five  ships,  carrying  four  thousand 
men,  given  him  by  Antigonus.  Polysperchon  immediately 
entered  Attica  with  twenty  thousand  Macedonian  foot  and 
four  thousand  of  those  of  the  allies,  one  thousand  horse, 
and  sixty-five  elephants,  which  he  had  brought  from  Asia, 
and  encamped  near  the  Piraeeus.  But  as  the  siege  was 
likely  to  be  tedious,  and  sufficient  provisions  for  so  large 
an  army  could  not  be  had,  he  left  a  force  such  as  the 
country  could  support  with  his  son  Alexander,  and  passed 
with  the  remainder  into  Peloponnesus,  to  force  the  Me- 
galopolitans  to  submit  to  the  Kings  ;  for  they  alone  sided 
with  Cassander,  all  the  rest  having  obeyed  the  directions 
to  put  to  death  or  banish  his  adherents.  The  whole  service- 
able population  of  Megalopolis,  slaves  included,  amounted 
to  fifteen  thousand  men  ;  and  under  the  directions  of  one 
Damis,  who  had  served  in  Asia  under  Alexander,  they  pre- 
pared for  a  vigorous  defence.  Polysperchon  sat  down  be- 
fore the  town,  and  his  miners  in  a  short  time  succeeded  in 
throwing  down  three  towers  and  a  part  of  the   wall.     He 


430  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

attempted  a  storm,  but  was  obliged  to  draw  off  his  men, 
after  an  obstinate  conflict.  He  then  thought  to  send  his 
elephants  in  through  the  breach  ;  but  Damis  had  had  doors 
set  with  sharp  spikes  laid  on  the  ground,  and  sunk  so  as 
not  to  be  visible.  The  weight  of  the  elephants  caused  the 
spikes  to  run  far  up  into  their  feet ;  the  light  troops,  which 
Damis  had  placed  on  the  flanks,  showered  missiles  upon 
them,  wounding  and  killing  the  Indians  who  guided  them ; 
the  elephants  rushed  back  on  their  own  men,  trampling 
them  to  death,  and  Polysperchon  was  obliged  to  raise  the 
siege  with  loss  of  fame. 

The  Athenians  meantime  saw  themselves  excluded  from 
the  sea,  and  from  all  their  sources  of  profit  and  enjoyment, 
while  little  aid  was  to  be  expected  from  Polysperchon,  who 
had  been  forced  to  raise  the  siege  of  Megalopolis,  and 
whose  fleet  had  just  now  been  destroyed  by  Antigonus  in 
the  Hellespont.  A  citizen  of  some  consideration  ventured 
at  length  to  propose  in  the  assembly  an  arrangement  with 
Cassander.  The  ordinary  tumult  at  first  was  raised,  but 
the  sense  of  interest  finally  prevailed.  Peace  was  procured, 
on  the  conditions  of  the  Munychia  remaining  in  Cassander's 
hands  till  the  end  of  the  present  contest ;  political  privi- 
leges being  restricted  to  those  possessed  of  ten  minas  and 
upwards  of  property,  and  a  person  appointed  by  Cassander 
being  at  the  head  of  the  government.  The  person  selected 
for  this  office  was  Demetrius  of  Phaleron,  a  distinguished 
Athenian  citizen ;  and  under  his  mild  and  equitable  rule  the 
people  were  far  happier  than  they  could  have  been  under 
a  democracy,  for  which  they  had  proved  themselves  no 
longer  fit. 

Cassander  then  passed  over  into  Peloponnesus,  and  laid 
siege  to  Tegea.  While  here,  he  heard  that  Olympias  had 
put  to  death  several  of  his  friends  in  Macedonia ;  among 
the  rest,  Philip  Aridseus  and  his  wife  Eurydice,  members  of 
the  royal  family.  He  at  once  (OI.  116,  1)  set  out  for 
Macedonia;  and  as  the  pass  of  Pylae  was  occupied  by  the 
^Etolians,   he   embarked   his  troops  in   Locris,  and   landed 


CONTESTS    IN    GREECE.  431 

them  in  Thessaly.  He  besieged  Olympias  in  Pydna,  forced 
her  to  surrender,  and  put  her  to  death.  Macedonia  sub- 
mitted to  him,  and  he  then  set  forth  for  Peloponnesus, 
where  Polysperchon's  son  Alexander  was  at  the  head  of  an 
army.  He  forced  a  passage  through  Pylse,  and  coming 
into  Boeotia,  announced  his  intention  of  restoring  Thebes, 
which  had  now  lain  desolate  for  twenty  years.  The  scat- 
tered Thebans  were  collected;  the  towns  of  Boeotia  and 
other  parts  of  Greece,  (Athens  in  particular,)  and  even  of 
Italy  and  Sicily,  aided  to  raise  the  walls  and  to  supply  the 
wants  of  the  returning  exiles,  and  Thebes  was  once  more 
numbered  among  the  cities  of  Greece. 

As  Alexander  guarded  the  Isthmus,  Cassander  passed  to 
Megara,  where  he  embarked  his  troops  and  elephants,  and 
crossed  over  to  Epidaurus.  He  made  Argos  and  Messene 
come  over  to  his  side,  and  then  returned  to  Macedonia. 

In  the  conflict  of  interests  which  prevailed  in  this  anarchic 
period,  Antigonus  was  ere  long  among  the  enemies  of  Cas- 
sander. He  sent  one  of  his  generals  to  Laconia,  who,  having 
obtained  permission  from  the  Spartans  to  recruit  in  Pelo- 
ponnesus, raised  eight  thousand  men.  The  command  in 
Peloponnesus  was  given  to  Polysperchon,  whose  son  Alex- 
ander was  summoned  over  to  Asia  to  accuse  Cassander  of 
treason  before  the  assembly  of  the  Macedonian  soldiers. 
Cassander  was  proclaimed  a  public  enemy  unless  he  sub- 
mitted to  Antigonus;  at  the  same  time  the  Greeks  were 
declared  independent,  Antigonus  hoping  thus  to  gain  them 
over  to  his  side.  He  then  sent  Alexander  back  with  five 
hundred  talents ;  and  when  Ptolemaeus  of  Egypt  heard  what 
Antigonus  had  done,  he  also  hastened  to  declare  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Greeks;  for  all  the  contending  generals 
were  anxious  to  stand  well  with  the  people  of  Greece,  from 
which  country,  exclusive  of  other  advantages,  they  drew 
their  best  soldiers. 

The  rival  parties  of  Antigonus  and  Cassander  in  Pelopon- 
nesus now  contended  with  an  acrimony  hardly  to  be  equalled 
in  the  days  of  independent  Greece.     Apollonides,  who  com- 


432  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

manded  for  Cassander  at  Argos,  made  an  expedition  into  Ar- 
cadia, and  reduced  Stymphalus.  During  his  absence,  the 
democratic  party  in  Argos  sent  to  invite  Alexander,  the  son 
of  Polysperchon  ;  but  while  he  delayed,  Apollonides  returned, 
and  finding  five  hundred  of  them  sitting  in  council  in  the 
Prytaneion,  he  closed  the  entrances,  and  setting  fire  to  the 
place,  burned  them  all  alive.  He  put  some  more  to  death, 
and  banished  a  good  number.  Cassander  himself  soon  after 
came  to  Peloponnesus,  where  he  invested  Orchomenus,  and, 
being  admitted  into  the  town  by  his  partisans,  gave  up  to 
them  Alexander's  friends,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the 
temple  of  Artemis,  and  they  put  them  all  to  death  without 
mercy. 

On  his  return  to  Macedonia,  Cassander  sent  to  Alexander, 
offering  him  the  chief  command  in  Peloponnesus  if  he  would 
desert  Antigonus  and  join  him.  As  this  was  the  great  object 
of  Alexander's  ambition,  he  accepted  the  offer,  and  thus  be- 
came the  enemy  of  his  own  father.  He  did  not,  however, 
long  enjoy  his  command ;  for  he  was  fallen  on  and  slain  by 
some  Sicyonians,  who  had  feigned  a  friendship  for  him.  His 
wife  Cratesipolis,  a  woman  of  masculine  spirit,  took  the  com- 
mand of  the  troops,  and  defeated  the  Sicyonians,  killing  a 
good  number  of  them ;  thirty  who  were  made  prisoners  she 
crucified,  for  that  Eastern  barbarity  was  now  known  in 
Greece;  and  she  governed  with  despotic  power  in  Sicyon. 

To  effect  a  counterpoise  to  the  power  of  the  iEtolians, 
who  were  hostile  to  him,  Cassander  persuaded  their  heredi- 
tary enemies,  the  Acarnanians,  to  renounce  their  present 
mode  of  dwelling  in  scattered  villages,  and  to  settle  in  a  few 
large  towns.  As  soon  as  he  was  gone  from  Acarnania,  three 
thousand  ^Etolians  came  and  laid  siege  to  Agrinion,  one  of 
these  towns.  The  people  surrendered  on  condition  of  a  free 
passage :  they  departed  on  the  faith  of  the  treaty ;  but  the 
^Etolians  pursued  and  massacred  them. 

Antigonus,  to  show  the  Greeks  that  he  was  in  earnest  in 
his  promise  to  restore  them  to  independence,  sent  one  of  his 
generals,  named  Telesphorus,  with  a  fleet  and  army  to  Pelo- 


DEMETRIUS    POLIORCETES    IN    GREECE.  433 

ponnesus,  who  expelled  Cassander's  garrisons  from  most  of 
the  towns.  The  following  year,  (Ol.  117,  1,)  he  sent  an 
officer,  named  Ptolemseus,  with  another  fleet  and  army  to 
Greece.  Ptolemseus  landed  in  Boeotia,  and  being  joined  by 
two  thousand  two  hundred  foot,  and  thirteen  hundred  horse 
of  the  Boeotians,  he  passed  over  to  Eubcea ;  where  having 
expelled  the  Macedonian  garrison  from  Chalcis,  (the  only 
town  there  which  Cassander  held,)  he  left  it  without  any 
foreign  garrison,  as  a  proof  that  Antigonus  meant  fairly. 
He  then  took  Oropus,  and  gave  it  to  the  Boeotians ;  he  en- 
tered Attica,  and  the  people  forced  Demetrius  Phalereus  to 
make  a  truce  with  him,  and  to  send  to  Antigonus  to  treat  of 
an  alliance.  Ptolemseus  returned  to  Boeotia,  expelled  the 
garrison  from  the  Cadmeia,  and  liberated  Thebes :  he  thence 
proceeded  to  Phocis,  and  did  the  same  in  its  towns,  and,  en- 
tering the  Opuntian  Locris,  laid  siege  to  the  town  of  Opus, 
which  favored  Cassander. 

But  Telesphorus  now  grew  jealous  of  Ptolemseus,  and  re- 
nouncing the  service  of  Antigonus,  he  went  to  Elis,  where 
he  occupied  the  Acropolis  and  reduced  the  town  to  obedi- 
ence ;  he  also  plundered  the  temple  of  fifty  talents,  with 
which  he  hired  mercenaries.  Ptolemseus  immediately  led 
his  army  into  Peloponnesus,  took  and  demolished  the  Acrop- 
olis of  Elis,  and  restored  their  liberty  to  the  people  and  the 
money  to  the  temple :  he  also  gave  back  to  the  Eleians  the 
port  of  Cyllene,  which  Telesphorus  had  surrendered  to  him 
on  composition. 

Of  the  course  of  events  for  more  than  a  year  in  Greece 
we  are  not  informed;  but  we  afterwards  (Ol.  117,  3)  find 
Ptolemseus  himself,  under  pretext  of  his  merits  not  being 
sufficiently  estimated,  renouncing  the  service  of  Antigonus 
for  that  of  Cassander.  Polysperchon,  too,  who  had  set  up  a 
son  of  the  great  Alexander  by  a  Persian  lady  named  Barsine, 
against  Cassander,  was  induced,  by  the  offer  of  the  command 
in  Peloponnesus  and  other  rewards,  to  stain  his  hands  with 
the  blood  of  the  innocent  prince. 

Antigonus,  still  bent  on  gaining  over  Greece,  sent  thither 
37  c  c  c 


434  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

(01. 118, 2)  his  son  Demetrius,  surnamed  Poliorcetes,  ( Town- 
take?-,)  from  his  successful  employment  of  military  engines. 
This  prince  landed  in  Attica,  and  took  the  Piraeus  and  the 
Munychia  by  assault.  Demetrius  Phalereus  was  obliged  to 
leave  the  city,  which  he  had  governed  for  ten  years ;  he  re- 
tired to  Thebes,  and  thence  to  Egypt,  where  he  met  a  most 
flattering  reception  from  Ptolemseus  Evergetes.  The  con- 
queror demolished  the  strong  castle  at  the  Munychia,  and 
restored  complete  independence  to  the  Athenian  people,  with 
whom  he  formed  a  treaty  of  friendship  and  alliance.  In  an 
assembly  of  the  people  a  decree  was  made  that  golden  figures 
of  Antigonus  and  Demetrius  on  a  chariot  should  be  set  up 
by  those  of  Harmodius  and  Aristogeiton  j  that  they  should 
be  presented  with  crowns  of  the  value  of  two  hundred  talents, 
and  an  altar  erected  to  them  under  the  title  of  Saviors;  that 
two  tribes,  to  be  named  the  Demetriad  and  Antigonid, 
should  be  added  to  the  original  ten ;  that  a  festival  and  sacri- 
fice in  their  honor  should  be  held  every  year,  and  their 
figures  be  woven  into  the  robe  made  annually  for  Pallas 
Athena,  the  protecting  deity  of  the  city.  The  invention  of 
the  demagogues  of  the  day  exhausted  itself  in  devising  modes 
of  setting  the  new  deities  on  a  par  with  those  of  Olympus. 
When  deputies  bearing  this  decree  came  to  Antigonus,  he 
presented  the  people  with  150,000  medimns  of  wheat,  and 
with  timber  sufficient  to  build  a  hundred  ships. 

Demetrius  was  shortly  afterwards  called  away  by  his 
father  to  aid  him  in  Asia.  He  defeated  (Ol.  118,  3)  Ptole- 
maeus  in  a  sea  fight,  the  greatest  in  antiquity,  and  conquered 
the  Isle  of  Cyprus.  An  attack  by  sea  and  land  on  Egypt 
failed,  with  great  loss  of  men  and  money.  The  Rhodians 
were  the  next  objects  of  hostility.  In  consequence  of  their 
situation  and  of  the  wisdom  of  the  aristocracy,  in  whose 
hands  the  government  was,  they  enjoyed  an  extensive  trade 
and  possessed  great  wealth  :  they  wished  to  maintain  a  neu- 
trality with  the  present  disputants  for  empire ;  but  Antigo- 
nus insisted  on  their  breaking  off  all  connection  with  Egypt ; 
and  on  their  refusal,  Demetrius  came  (Ol.   119,  1)  with  a 


DEATH    OF    ANTIGONUS.  435 

great  fleet  and  army,  and  with  his  huge  machines,  and  laid 
siege  to  the  city  of  Rhodes.*  During  an  entire  year  he  ex- 
erted all  his  powers  to  no  purpose  ;  no  internal  feud  aided 
him,  and  all  his  attacks  were  repelled.  At  length,  when  he 
saw  Ptolemaeus  and  the  other  princes  preparing  to  send  aid 
to  the  Rhodians,  and  embassies  from  Athens  and  other  parts 
of  Greece  came  in  their  favor,  he  gladly  seized  the  pretext 
of  his  presence  being  required  in  Greece,  and  granted  them 
an  honorable  peace.  (Ol.  119,  2.)  He  repaired  to  Greece 
to  oppose  Cassander  and  Polysperchon,  who  had  made  them- 
selves masters  of  nearly  all  parts  of  it  except  Attica  and 
^Etolia.  He  landed  at  Aulis,  and  speedily  drove  their  troops 
out  of  Bceotia,  and  then  came  to  spend  the  winter  at  Athens. 
The  flattery  of  the  people  assigned  their  deity  the  back  part 
(dmadodo/uog)  of  the  Parthenon  for  his  abode,  and  the  tem- 
ple of  the  virgin-goddess  was  daily  polluted  by  the  licentious 
orgies  of  himself  and  his  harlots. 

After  a  luxurious  abode  at  Athens,  Demetrius  at  length 
(01.  119,  3)  entered  Peloponnesus  :  he  drove  away  all  the 
foreign  garrisons,  and  restored  the  cities  to  a  nominal  inde- 
pendence ;  and  at  a  congress,  convened  to  Corinth,  he  was 
chosen,  like  Philip  and  Alexander,  head  of  the  Greek  con- 
federacy. He  returned  to  Athens,  (Ol.  119,  4,)  where  the 
people  complaisantly,  by  making  one  month  become  two 
others  in  turn,  celebrated  the  whole  of  the  Mysteries  at 
once,  that  their  licentious  divinity  might  be  fully  initiated. 
He  then,  at  his  father's  call,  repaired  to  Asia,  where  Ptole- 
maeus, Cassander,  and  Lysimachus  had  united  their  forces 
against  him.  The  battle  of  Ipsus,  in  Phrygia,  terminated  the 
life  and  reign  of  Antigonus.  Demetrius  was  repairing  to 
Athens,  where  he  had  left  his  wife,  his  money,  and  his  ships; 
but  an  embassy  met  him  at  the  Cyclades  to  say  that  the 
people  had  passed  a  decree  not  to  admit  any  of  the  kings 
into  their  city.     Having  gently  reproached  them  with  what 

*  At  the  instance  of  Lysander,  (01.  92,  2,)  the  three  Rhodian  states 
had  coalesced,  and  built  a  common  capital  of  the  same  name  with  the 
island.     Diodor.  xiii.  75  ;  Strabo,  xiv.  2. 


436  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

he  termed  their  ingratitude,  and  obtained  his  ships,  he  went 
away ;  and  fortune  was  so  favorable  to  him  that  two  years 
afterwards,  (Ol.  120,2,)  he  was  able  to  come  with  a  fleet  and 
army,  and  taking  Eleusis  and  Rhamnus,  to  ravage  the  coun- 
try round.  Having  captured  a  ship  bound,  with  corn,  for 
Athens,  he  hung  the  owner  and  the  master ;  and  no  ship  would 
in  future  venture  to  approach  its  port.  The  distress  then 
became  sO  great  that  a  medimn  (bushel)  of  salt  cost  forty 
drachmas,  and  a  modius  (peck)  of  wheat  three  hundred. 
Lachares,  who  ruled  the  city  as  tyrant,  fled  away,  and  the 
gates  were  opened  to  Demetrius.  He  forgave  the  people, 
and  presented  them  with  100,000  medimns  of  wheat ;  but  he 
placed  a  garrison  on  the  eminence  named  the  Museion 
(Museum)  to  keep  them  in  their  allegiance. 

Demetrius,  some  time  after,  led  his  army  against  the  Lace- 
daemonians :  they  engaged  him,  under  their  King  Archida- 
mus,  at  Mantineia,  but  were  defeated.  He  entered  Laconia, 
and  routed  them  again  close  to  Sparta,  which  was  now 
walled ;  and  he  would  have  taken  it  but  that  news  of  the 
successes  of  his  enemies  in  Asia  called  him  away. 

On  the  death  of  Cassander,  (Ol.  121,  3,)  Demetrius  made 
himself  master  of  Macedonia  also.  After  seven  years  he 
was  driven  out  of  it  (Ol.  123,  2)  by  Pyrrhus  the  Epirote, 
who  within  seven  months  lost  it  to  Lysimachus  of  Thrace. 
It  was  at  this  time  that  nearly  the  last  effort  of  Athenian 
heroism  displayed  itself.  The  people  assembled,  old  and 
young,  and  setting  a  man  named  Olympiodorus  at  their 
head,  defeated  the  garrison  at  the  Museum;  they  then 
attacked  and  took  that  fortress,  and  also  the  Piraeeus  and 
Munychia.  When  the  Macedonians  made  an  incursion 
into  Eleusis,  the  brave  Olympiodorus  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  Eleusinians  and  defeated  them,  and  Athens 
remained  now  independent.* 

Pyrrhus,  at  the  call  of  the  Tarentines,  (Ol.  125,  1,)  passed 
over  to  Italy  to  aid  them  against  the  Romans.     Antigonus 

*  Pausanias,  i.  26. 


IRRUPTION  OF  THE  GAULS.  437 

Gonnatas,*  the  son  of  Demetrius,  (who  was  now  dead,) 
was  master  of  most  of  Peloponnesus,  and  Ptolemaeus  Cerau- 
nus,  son  of  Ptolemaeus  Soter,  of  Egypt,  ruled  Macedonia, 
when  a  host  of  barbarians  poured  into  Macedonia  and 
Greece. 

The  Gauls  or  Celts,  whose  original  seats  were  France  and 
the  British  Isles,  had  felt  the  desire  of  change  and  lust  of 
acquiring  new  abodes,  to  which  barbarians  are  subject.  It 
was  now  more  than  a  century  since  they  had  occupied  the 
plain  of  the  Po  in  Italy,  and  had  reached  and  sacked  Rome: 
they  had  also  advanced  and  seized  the  countries  along  the 
Danube,  and  they  now  held  the  plains  of  Thrace.  They 
proceeded  to  invade  Macedonia.  Ptolemseus  fell  in  battle 
against  them,  and  they  ravaged  the  whole  country.  The 
next  year,  (Ol.  125,  2,  279,)  they  were  joined  by  numbers 
of  their  countrymen  from  about  the  Danube ;  and  an  army, 
we  are  told,  of  fifteen  myriads  of  foot  and  six  myriads  of 
horse,  led  by  Brennus  and  Acichorius,  entered  Thessaly. 
The  Greeks,  alarmed  at  their  approach,  united  to  oppose 
them  ;  and  an  army,  in  which  were  ten  thousand  Boeotian 
hoplites  and  troops  from  all  Greece,  without  the  Isthmus, 
guarded  Thermopylae,  while  an  Athenian  fleet  lay  close  to 
the  shore.  The  Gauls  failed  in  an  attempt  to  ascend  Mount 
(Eta  at  Heracleia.  The  ^Enians  and  Heracleotes,  however, 
in  order  to  get  rid  of  them,  showed  them  the  path  by  which 
the  Persians  had  ascended.  Brennus  led  up  it  forty  thou- 
sand men:  a  mist  concealed  them  from  the  Phocians,  who 
guarded  it,  till  they  were  close  to  them.  The  Phocians 
fought  for  some  time,  then  turned  and  fled ;  and  the  army 
at  the  pass  dispersed  and  went  to  guard  their  homes.  Bren- 
nus pushed  on  without  delay  for  Delphi  to  plunder  the 
temple,  to  whose  defence  the  neighboring  peoples  repaired. 
The  god,  as  usual,  gave  his  aid ;  the  earth  rocked  beneath 
the  feet  of  the  Gauls  as  they  fought ;  the  thunder  roared 
and  the  lightning  flew  the  entire  day,  and  with  the  night 

*  So  named  as  being  born  at  the  town  of  Gonni 
37* 


438  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

came  on  a  piercing  frost  and  heavy  snow,  while  huge  rocks 
rolled  down  from  Parnassus.  In  the  morning  the  Greeks 
assailed  them  on  all  sides,  and  they  fled,  having  previously 
put  their  sick  and  wounded  to  death.  Next  night  a  panic 
terror  seized  them ;  they  took  one  another  for  Greeks,  and 
fell  by  mutual  slaughter.  The  iEtolians  hung  on  them 
every  where,  the  Melians  and  Thessalians  assailed  them 
beyond  the  pass,  and  but  a  few  of  them  quitted  Greece 
alive.* 

Pyrrhus  returned  from  Italy,  (Ol.  126,  3,)  and,  ever  rest- 
less, made  war  on  Antigonus  Gonnatas,  and  chased  him  out 
of  Macedonia.  Urged  by  Cleonymus,  uncle  of  the  Spartan 
King  Areus,  he  then  invaded  Laconia  (01.  127,  1)  with  an 
army  of  25,000  foot,  2000  horse,  and  twenty-four  elephants. 
He  reached  Sparta  in  the  evening,  but  fearing  that  his  troops 
would  plunder  it  if  he  took  it  in  the  night,  he  deferred  the 
attack  till  morning;  of  success  he  had  no  doubt,  as  King 
Areus  was  away  in  Crete  with  the  best  troops.  But  in  the 
night  the  Spartans,  urged  by  the  women,  who  declared  they 
would  not  survive  the  fall  of  Sparta,  dug  a  deep  trench, 
eight  hundred  feet  long,  before  his  camp,  the  women  all 
aiding  in  the  work,  and  at  each  end  of  it  they  placed 
wagons  with  their  wheels  half  buried  in  the  earth  to  im- 
pede the  elephants. 

In  the  morning  Pyrrhus  led  his  hoplites  against  the 
trench ;  the  Lacedaemonians,  encouraged  by  their  mothers 
and  wives,  defended  it  gallantly.  His  son  Ptolemaeus,  and 
a  body  of  Gauls  and  Chaonians,  assailed  the  wagons,  which 
they  endeavored  to  pull  up  and  fling  into  the  river;  but 
Areus'  son  Acrotatus  fell  on  them  and  drove  them  off:  night 
ended  the  conflict.  Next  morning  it  was  renewed,  and 
Pyrrhus  forced  his  way  into  the  town ;  but  his  horse  was 
killed  under  him,  and  his  troops  were  driven  back.  Most 
of  the  Spartans  were  now  wounded  or  slain,  and  the  town 
must  have  surrendered,  but  that  the  Messenians  came  to  its 
aid.     Antigonus'  general  at  Corinth  led  thither  a  corps  of 

*  Pausanias,  x.  19—23.    Justin,  xxiv. 


JETOLIAN   AND    ACH.KAN   LEAGUES.  439 

mercenaries,  and  Areus  landed  with  two  thousand  men. 
Pyrrhus  retired  and  wasted  the  country,  intending  to  winter 
there ;  but  just  then  there  chanced  to  be  a  feud  in  Argos, 
where  two  persons,  named  Aristeas  and  Aristippus,  were 
contending  for  the  tyranny ;  the  former  being  supported  by 
Antigonus,  the  latter  called  in  Pyrrhus,  who  repaired  to  him 
at  once.  King  Areus  impeded  his  march  as  much  as  possi- 
ble, and  the  young  Ptolemaeus  was  slain  in  a  skirmish;  but 
Pyrrhus,  enraged  at  the  loss  of  his  son,  charged  the  foes, 
and  they  were  scattered  like  dust  before  the  whirlwind. 
Finding  Antigonus  encamped  on  the  heights  over  Argos,  he 
halted  at  Nauplia :  the  Argives  sent  to  pray  them  both  to 
retire  and  leave  the  city  to  itself:  Antigonus  consented,  and 
gave  his  son  as  a  hostage :  Pyrrhus  also  promised,  but  gave 
no  pledge ;  and  that  very  night  Aristeas  opened  one  of  the 
gates  to  him,  and  he  reached  the  market  with  his  Gauls; 
but  the  gate  not  admitting  the  elephants  with  their  towers, 
the  Argives  had  time  to  assemble.  Antigonus  at  their 
desire  sent  them  troops,  and  Areus  also  arrived.  In  the 
morning,  one  of  Pyrrhus'  elephants  was  killed,  and  fell  and 
blocked  up  the  gate ;  another  ran  wild ;  his  orders  to  his 
son,  who  commanded  outside,  were  misunderstood ;  and  in 
the  conflict  which  ensued,  as  the  king  was  engaged  with  one 
of  the  Argives,  the  mother  of  the  latter  flung  a  tile  from 
the  roof  of  a  house  at  him,  which  stunned  him,  and  one  of 
Antigonus'  officers  cut  off  his  head  while  he  was  senseless. 
Antigonus  dismissed  the  son  of  the  slain  prince  and  the 
Epirotes  with  honor. 

The  power  of  Antigonus  was  now  supreme  throughout 
Greece.  He  made  himself  master  of  the  Aero-Corinth  by 
stratagem,  and  tyrants,  upheld  by  him,  ruled  in  most  of  the 
towns  of  Peloponnesus.  Exiles  were  numerous,  and  they 
and  the  discharged  mercenaries  formed  bands  of  robbers, 
and  plundered  the  country.  In  this  wretched  state  of  things, 
two  confederations  appeared  which  displayed  the  last  glim- 
mer of  Hellenic  freedom  and  independence :  these  were  the 
iEtolian  and  Achaean  Leagues. 


440  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

The  iEtolians  had  probably  always  had  a  loose  kind  of 
union  among  their  clans,  but  they  were  known  to  Greece 
only  as  robbers  and  mercenaries  till  they  aided,  in  their  na- 
tional capacity,  the  Thebans  against  Alexander  the  Great. 
In  the  Lamian  and  Celtic  wars  they  were,  as  we  have  seen, 
actors  of  importance.  They  had  forced  Heracleia,  in  Trachis, 
to  join  their  league,  which  they  also  extended  into  Thessaly 
and  Lamia,  and  other  towns  there  were  held  by  them.  They 
took  Naupactus  from  the  Locrians,  and  Stratus  from  the 
Acarnanians,  and  eventually  some  places  in  Peloponnesus 
formed  alliances  with  them.  The  Panaetolion,  or  general 
assembly,  was  regularly  held  at  the  autumnal  equinox,  at 
Thermon :  it  was  of  a  thoroughly  democratic  character ; 
and  was  presided  over  by  the  Strategos  or  general,  the  chief 
magistrate  or  head  of  the  state,  who  was  chosen  by  it  every 
year.  The  iEtolian  character  always  remained  the  same, 
rude,  quarrelsome,  and  rapacious. 

The  Achaean  League  was  of  a  much  higher  character,  in 
consequence  of  that  of  the  people  composing  it,  who  were 
always  reckoned  the  most  just  and  moderate  among  the 
Greeks.*  The  twelve  towns  of  Achaia  had,  from  the  most 
remote  times,  had  a  federal  union ;  but  the  Macedonian  in- 
fluence in  Peloponnesus,  and  other  causes,  had  nearly  broken 
it  up,  when  (Ol.  125,  1)  Dyme,  Patrae,  Tritaea,  and  Pharae 
agreed  to  renew  it.  Gradually  all  the  towns,  except  Olenos, 
joined  it;  but  still  thirty  years  elapsed  before  it  became  of 
importance.  Its  Synods  (awodol)  or  general  assemblies, 
which  were  held  twice  a  year  at  iEgion,  were  of  a  genuine 
democratic  character.!  They  were  presided  over  by  the 
two  strategi,!  who  were  annually  elected.  No  federal  union 
in  Greece  had  ever  been  so  close  as  the  Achaean  League. 

What  first  gave  importance  to  the  Achaean  League  was 
the  addition  to  it  of  the  Doric  state  of  Sicyon,  which  took 
place  on  the  following  occasion. 


*  Polyb.  ii.  39.  t  Polyb.  ii.  38,  7. 

X  The  number  was  afterwards  reduced  to  one. 


ARATUS.  441 

The  town  of  Sicyon,  when  its  original  Dorian  aristocracy 
had  been  broken  up,  was  continually  afflicted  by  the  scourge 
of  tyrants  and  demagogues.  At  length  the  government  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  Timocleidas  and  Cleinias,  two  of  the 
leading  citizens  ;  but  the  former  died,  and  the  latter  was 
killed  by  a  man  named  Abantidas,  who  aspired  to  the 
tyranny.  As  usual,  he  put  to  death  or  banished  the  prin- 
cipal friends  and  adherents  of  Cleinias ;  and  he  sought  to 
destroy  his  son  Aratus,  a  child  of  but  seven  years ;  but  the 
tyrant's  own  sister  saved  him,  and  conveyed  him  to  his 
friends  at  Argos. 

Aratus,  when  he  grew  up,  devoted  himself  to  athletic  ex- 
ercises ;  but  he  cherished  an  inveterate  hatred  to  the  tyrants, 
and  meditated  the  liberation  of  his  country,  where,  after  the 
murder  of  Abantidas  and  his  father,  a  man  named  Nicocles 
now  ruled.  He  sought  aid  from  the  kings  of  Macedonia 
and  Egypt,  and  he  proposed  to  the  other  exiles  to  seize  a 
post  in  the  territory  of  Sicyon,  and  make  war  at  once  on 
the  tyrant.  But  just  then  came  to  Argos  a  man  who  had 
made  his  escape  from  Sicyon,  and  he  told  them  of  a  part  of 
the  walls  which  might  easily  be  scaled,  if  the  dogs  of  a  gar- 
dener who  lived  close  to  it  were  kept  quiet.  It  was  at 
once  resolved  to  make  the  attempt ;  arms  and  ladders  were 
prepared ;  five  of  the  party  were  despatched  to  go  as  trav- 
ellers to  the  gardener's  house  at  nightfall,  and,  having  ob- 
tained lodging,  to  secure  himself  and  his  dogs ;  the  rest  set 
out  at  the  appointed  time,  and  so  arranged  their  route  as  to 
reach  Sicyon  towards  midnight.  Their  friends,  they  found, 
had  secured  the  gardener,  but  not  his  dogs,  which  set  up  a 
tremendous  barking.  The  men  who  carried  the  ladders 
went  on,  notwithstanding,  and  placed  them  against  the  wall ; 
but  just  as  they  were  mounting,  the  officer  who  was  setting 
the  morning  watch  passed  along  with  a  bell  and  several 
lights  :  they  clung  to  their  ladders,  and  escaped  observation ; 
the  guard  which  had  been  relieved  also  passed  without  no- 
ticing them  ;  they  then  mounted  the  wall,  and  sent  to  sum- 
mon Aratus.     A  large  dog  in  one  of  the  towers  now  replied 

D    D  D 


442  HISTORY   OF    GREECE. 

to  those  of  the  gardener;  the  whole  place  rang  with  the 
baying  and  barking;  the  cocks  began  to  crow;  the  hour 
when  the  country  people  would  come  to  market  was  at 
hand  ;  and  when  Aratus  came  to  the  wall,  the  ladders  proved 
weak,  and  they  had  to  mount  with  great  caution.  When 
about  forty  were  up,  they  proceeded  to  the  guard-house 
near  the  tyrant's  residence,  where  they  seized  and  secured 
his  mercenaries.  It  being  now  day,  they  sent  to  the  houses 
of  their  friends  to  call  them  forth;  the  theatre  was  filled 
with  people  anxious  to  know  what  had  occurred,  and  a 
herald  came  forward  and  announced  that  Aratus,  the  son 
of  Cleinias,  invited  the  people  to  liberty.  Instantly  a  rush 
was  made  to  the  tyrant's  house;  fire  was  set  to  it,  and  a 
flame  sprang  up  which  was  visible  at  Corinth ;  but  the  sol- 
diers and  people  extinguished  it  for  the  sake  of  the  plunder. 
Nicocles  made  his  escape  from  the  town  by  an  underground 
passage,  and  not  a  single  person  was  slain,  or  even  wounded, 
in  this  bloodless  revolution.     (Ol.  132,  2.) 

All  who  had  been  exiled  during  the  last  fifty  years,  five 
hundred  in  number,  were  recalled,  and  they  naturally  re- 
claimed their  houses  and  lands,  a  thing  which  caused  Aratus 
much  perplexity ;  moreover,  King  Antigonus  did  not  like  to 
see  the  establishment  of  liberty  in  Sicyon,  and  was  watch- 
ing for  an  opportunity  to  suppress  it.  Against  this  last 
danger  Aratus  provided  a  remedy  by  uniting  Sicyon  to  the 
Achsean  League,  and  he  did  not  himself  disdain  to  serve  in 
the  horse  under  the  Achaean  strategus.  To  obviate  the  in- 
ternal dissensions,  he  made  in  person  a  voyage  to  Egypt ; 
and  having  obtained  from  the  king  a  gift  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  talents,  he  returned  and  adjusted  all  the  contend- 
ing claims  among  the  citizens. 

At  length,  (Ol.  133,  3,)  Aratus  was  chosen  strategus  of 
the  League.  He  crossed  the  gulf,  and  plundered  Locris  and 
Calydon  at  the  head  of  ten  thousand  men  ;  but  by  not  ad- 
vancing in  time,  he  let  his  Boeotian  allies  sustain  a  com- 
plete defeat  from  the  ^Etolians  at  Chocroneia.  In  his  sec- 
ond strategy,  (Ol.  134,  2.)  Aratus  took  Aero-Corinth  by  a 


ARATUS.  443 

nocturnal  assault ;  and  he  induced  the  Corinthians,  Mega- 
rians,  Epidaurians,  and  Trcezenians  to  become  members  of 
the  League.  He  made  various  attempts  to  liberate  Argos 
from  its  tyrants,  but  without  success.  Lydiades,  the  ty- 
rant of  Megalopolis,  who  was  a  man  of  noble  mind,  volun- 
tarily laid  down  the  tyranny,  and  united  his  native  town 
to  the  League,  of  which  he  was  more  than  once  chosen 
strategus. 

By  skilfully  taking  advantage  of  circumstances,  Aratus 
eventually  succeeded  in  uniting  not  only  Argos  but  Athens 
to  the  League,  which  had  also  gradually  embraced  Cleonae, 
Phlius,  Hermione,  and  most  part  of  Arcadia.  His  great 
object  was  to  deliver  the  whole  Peloponnesus  from  Mace- 
donian influence,  and  to  form  it  into  one  firm,  compact  body. 


CHAPTER   VI.* 


KING     AGIS    OF     SPARTA. CLEOMENES     OF    SPARTA.  CLEO- 

MENIAN    WAR. BATTLE    OF    SELLASIA. DEATH    OF    CLE- 
OMENES. 

The  whole  course  of  history  shows  that  no  attempt  is  more 
certain  to  miscarry  than  that  of  bringing  back  a  state  to  its 
condition  at  some  former  period  :  it  is  a  vain  effort  to  make 
the  stream  of  time  roll  back ;  it  is  like  requiring  an  aged 
man  to  return  to  the  vigor  and  animation  of  his  youth. 
Yet  as  virtue  and  nobleness  of  soul,  even  when  aiming  at 
impossibility,  justly  demand  esteem,  we  cannot  refuse  our 
applause  to  those  who  have  vainly  sought  to  restore  their 
country  to  its  former  condition ;  or  withhold  our  pity  when 
they  have  perished,  the  victims  of  their  generous  enthu- 
siasm. 

*  Plut.,  Agis  and  Cleomeneg,  Aratus.  Polyb.  ii.  45  to  the  end;  v. 
35—39. 


444  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

An  attempt  of  this  nature  was  now  made  at  Sparta.  The 
Lycurgean  constitution,  though  to  outward  appearance  un- 
altered, and  the  lifeless  forms  still  preserved,  had  in  reality 
been  greatly  departed  from,  more  especially  since  the  time 
of  the  overthrow  of  the  Athenian  power  ;  and  luxury  of 
every  kind  prevailed  in  Sparta,  where  wealth  had  been  in- 
troduced. The  original  division  of  the  land  into  lots  might 
have  operated  in  some  measure  as  a  check ;  but  a  law  had 
been  proposed  by  one  of  the  ephors,  named  Epitadeus,  (out 
of  enmity  towards  his  son,)  enabling  every  person  to  dis- 
pose of  his  house  and  lot  as  he  pleased.*  This  law  was 
greedily  adopted,  and  the  consequence  was,  that  the  land 
rapidly  accumulated  in  the  hands  of  a  small  number  of  per- 
sons, many  of  whom  were  females.  The  Spartans,  too,  had 
shared  the  fate  of  all  close  bodies ;  their  number  was  fear- 
fully diminished,  and  at  this  time  they  only  counted  seven 
hundred,  but  a  seventh  part  of  whom  were  possessed  of  land. 

The  kings  of  Sparta  now  were  Agis  III.,  of  the  house  of 
Procles,  a  family  which  had  given  Sparta  its  ablest  and  most 
heroic  princes,  and  Leonid  as,  of  the  house  of  Agis.  The 
latter  was  a  man  advanced  in  years,  who  had  learned  luxury 
and  corruption  at  the  court  of  the  kings  of  Syria,  in  whose 
service  he  had  been.  Agis  was  a  young  man,  who,  reared 
according  to  the  ancient  system  which  was  still  in  use,  had 
conceived  the  utmost  aversion  for  the  corruption  of  man- 
ners which  prevailed,  and  the  highest  veneration  for  the  in- 
stitutions of  Lycurgus,  from  a  return  to  which  alone  he 
looked  for  the  regeneration  of  Sparta. 

Agis  commenced  by  setting  an  example  in  his  own  per- 
son of  a  return  to  the  dress,  habits,  and  mode  of  life  of 
former  times.  The  young  listened  readily  to  his  exhorta- 
tions, and  followed  his  example  ;  but  the  elder  citizens  turned 
from  them  with  aversion  and  terror.  He  gained,  however, 
to  his  side  three  persons  of  importance  in  the  state,  namely, 
Lysander,  Mandrocleidas,  and  Agesilaus.     This  last  was  his 

*  This  was  after  the  time  of  Lysander,  and  long  before  that  of  Aristotle. 


KING    AGIS    OF    SPARTA.  445 

mother's  brother,  a  man  of  talent,  but  covetous  and  deeply 
in  debt :  he  was  apparently  induced  to  join  by  the  argu- 
ments of  his  son  Hippomedon,  but  his  real  motive  was  the 
hope  of  getting  rid  of  his  debts  in  the  revolution.  Agis 
next  assailed  his  mother  Agesistrata  and  his  grandmother 
Archidamia,  the  two  wealthiest  persons  in  Sparta.  They 
at  first  treated  his  project  as  visionary,  but  were  at  last 
induced  to  join  cordially  in  it,  and  to  exert  their  influence 
with  their  female  friends,  whose  power  was  paramount  in 
Sparta.  These,  however,  would  not  hear  of  any  thing  tend- 
ing to  deprive  them  of  luxury  and  power  :  they  called  upon 
Leonidas,  as  the  elder  king,  to  check  the  wild  designs  of 
Agis,  and  he  readily  undertook  the  task;  but  fearing  the  peo- 
ple, did  not  venture  to  oppose  openly,  contenting  himself 
with  insinuating  that  the  real  object  of  Agis  was  the  tyranny. 

By  the  influence  of  Agis,  Lysander  became  an  ephor,  (Ol. 
134,  1,)  and  he  immediately  proposed  a  law  in  the  senate, 
of  which  the  heads  are  these  :  All  debts  should  be  abolished ; 
the  land  south  of  the  rivulet  of  Pellene  and  Sellasia  should 
be  divided  into  4500  lots,  the  rest  into  15,000  ;  this  last  for 
the  Pericecians,  the  former  for  the  Spartans,  whose  number 
was  to  be  completed  by  the  admission  of  Pericecians  and 
deserving  strangers ;  and  they  were  to  be  divided  into  fif- 
teen Phiditia  of  200  and  400  members,  and  live  after  the 
ancient  mode. 

The  senate  not  agreeing  to  it,  Lysander  brought  the  mat- 
ter before  the  people.  Oracles  of  old  and  recent  date  were 
quoted  by  him  and  his  friends ;  and  King  Agis  coming  for- 
ward, after  speaking  briefly  in  favor  of  it,  gave  the  strong- 
est proof  of  his  sincerity  by  declaring  that  himself  and  his 
relatives  and  friends,  who  were  the  richest  persons  in  Laco- 
nia,  gave  their  property  to  the  public.  Leonidas  and  the 
wealthy  exerted  themselves  on  the  other  side ;  and  Lysan- 
der saw  that  success  was  dubious  while  Leonidas  was  in 
power.  As  there  was  an  old  law  which  forbade  a  Heracleid 
to  have  children  by  a  foreigner,  Lysander  proved  that  Leon- 
idas, while  in  Asia,  had  two  children  by  a  native  woman. 
38 


446  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

His  son-in-law  Cleombrotus  was  induced  to  claim  the  throne : 
Leonidas  sought  refuge  at  the  temple  of  the  Chalcioecos, 
whither  his  daughter  Cheilonis,  the  wife  of  Cleombrotus,  ac- 
companied him,  leaving  her  husband,  who  was  now  king. 

New  ephors  now  came  into  office,  who  restored  Leonidas, 
and  were  proceeding  against  Lysander  and  his  friends,  when, 
at  his  suggestion,  the  kings  entered  the  market,  drove  the 
ephors  from  their  seats,  and  appointed  new  ones,  one  of 
whom  was  Agesilaus.  The  young  men  were  armed,  the  pris- 
ons opened  ;  but  no  blood  was  shed,  and  Leonidas  himself 
was  escorted  safely  to  Tegea.  The  unprincipled  Agesilaus 
now  persuaded  Agis  that  it  would  not  be  safe  to  carry  the 
whole  reform  at  once,  and  advised  to  commence  by  the  abo- 
lition of  debts.  The  unsuspecting  prince  assented  :  creditors 
were  obliged  to  surrender  their  securities ;  and  they  were  all 
burnt  in  the  market,  Agesilaus  declaring  that  he  had  never 
seen  a  brighter  blaze  or  a  clearer  fire.  But  having  gotten  rid 
of  his  debts,  his  only  thought  now  was  to  keep  his  estate, 
and  he  put  off  Agis  and  the  people  with  various  excuses 
when  they  called  for  a  division  of  lands. 

Shortly  after,  Agis  led  to  Corinth  the  troops  required  by 
Aratus  to  repel  an  invasion  of  the  iEtolians;  and,  during 
his  absence  and  after  his  return,  the  insolence  and  tyranny 
of  Agesilaus  passed  all  bounds.  The  people  were  now  so 
irritated  by  disappointment  that  the  friends  of  Leonidas 
ventured  openly  to  bring  him  back  from  Tegea.  Agesilaus 
was  enabled  to  escape  by  the  influence  of  his  son  with  the 
people  :  Agis  took  sanctuary  at  the  temple  of  the  Chalcicecos, 
Cleombrotus  at  that  of  Poseidon.  Leonidas  followed  him 
thither,  and  bitterly  reproached  him  with  his  conduct ;  but 
the  virtuous  Cheilonis  now  sat  a  suppliant  with  her  hus- 
band, as  before  with  her  father :  his  life  was  granted  to  her 
prayers,  and,  unmoved  by  her  father's  entreaties  to  remain, 
she  became  the  partner  of  his  exile. 

The  next  measure  was  to  draw  Agis  from  his  sanctuary. 
Leonidas  at  first  invited  him  to  come  and  resume  his  reign, 
as  he  had  been  only  led  astray  by  Lysander  and  Agesilaus. 


CLEOMENES    OF    SPARTA.  447 

This  not  succeeding,  three  persons,  Amphares,  Demochares, 
and  Arcesilaus,  pretended  friends  of  the  prince,  undertook 
to  betray  him.  They  induced  him  at  various  times  to  leave 
the  temple  for  the  sake  of  bathing ;  and  one  day,  as  they 
were  returning  from  the  bath,  they  suddenly  laid  hold  of 
him,  and  dragged  him  to  the  prison.  Amphares,  who  was 
an  ephor,  summoned  thither  his  colleagues  and  such  sena- 
tors as  agreed  with  them  in  sentiment.  After  a  mock  trial, 
they  condemned  him  to  death.  The  ministers  of  death 
shrank  from  laying  hold  of  their  king  ;  but  Demochares  him- 
self dragged  him  into  the  Decas,*  and  as  the  people  were 
assembling  with  many  lights  around  the  prison,  (for  it  was 
now  night,)  and  a  rescue  was  apprehended,  he  was  strangled 
without  delay.     Agis  died  as  he  had  lived.     (Ol.  135,  1.) 

The  mothers  of  the  murdered  prince  were  now  at  the 
door.  Amphares  assured  them  he  was  safe,  and  invited 
Agesistrata  to  enter  and  see  him.  She  and  her  mother  en- 
tered :  the  door  was  closed.  Archidamia  was  first  conducted 
to  where  Agis  lay ;  the  cord  was  placed  round  her  neck,  and 
the  venerable  woman  stretched  a  corpse  beside  him.  Agesis- 
trata was  then  called  in.  She  gazed  on  the  dead,  helped  to 
adjust  the  body  of  her  mother,  and  kissing  Agis,  said,  "  My 
son,  thy  mildness  and  humanity  have  ruined  thee  and  us." 
Amphares  entered  in  a  rage  :  "  Since  you  approve  of  what  he 
did,  you  shall  share  his  fate."  "  May  it  only  be  of  advantage 
to  Sparta  !  "  said  she,  and  resigned  her  neck  to  the  cord. 

Leonidas  now  reigned  alone.  As  the  widow  of  Agis  was 
young,  beautiful,  and  one  of  the  wealthiest  heiresses  in 
Sparta,  he  forced  her  to  marry  his  son  Cleomenes,  though 
he  had  scarcely  attained  the  age  of  puberty.  Cleomenes, 
of  a  generous  disposition,  adored  his  admirable  wife,  and 
hung  from  her  lips  as  she  dwelt  on  the  virtues  and  noble 
designs  of  Agis,  in  whose  footprints  he  resolved  to  tread. 
The  precepts  of  the  Stoic  philosophy  also,  it  is  said,  con- 
tributed to  strengthen  the  mind  of  the  young  prince. 

*  This  seems  to  have  answered  to  the  Tullianum  of  the  prison  at 
Rome.     (Sallust,  Cat.  55.) 


448  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

When  Cleomenes  came  to  the  throne,  on  the  death  of  his 
father,  (01.  136,  1,)  he  saw  that  the  king  was  a  mere  cipher, 
all  power  being  engrossed  by  the  ephors;  a  conversation  on 
the  subject  of  King  Agis  with  one  of  his  most  intimate 
friends  also  satisfied  him  that  the  reforms  he  meditated 
never  could  be  brought  about  by  persuasion.  A  war,  he 
perceived,  alone,  by  putting  him  at  the  head  of  a  military 
force,  would  enable  him  to  overturn  the  power  of  the  ephors  ; 
and  for  this  the  Achaeans  soon  furnished  the  occasion. 

Aratus,  who  had  drawn  the  whole  Peloponnesus,  Elis, 
Lacedaemon,  and  some  towns  of  Arcadia  excepted,  into  the 
Achaean  League,  was  now  forcing  these  Arcadian  towns  to 
become  members  of  it.  The  ephors  ordered  Cleomenes  to 
march  and  occupy  the  Athenaeon  at  Belmina  in  the  territory 
of  Megalopolis.  Aratus,  having  made  a  vain  attempt  to 
surprise  it  by  night,  retired,  and  Cleomenes  then  overran 
the  lands  of  Argos.  The  Achaeans  sent  an  army  of  20,000 
foot  and  1000  horse  against  him ;  but  Aratus,  always  timid 
in  the  field,  advised  the  strategus  not  to  hazard  an  action, 
though  Cleomenes  had  not  quite  five  thousand  men. 

The  next  year,  Aratus,  being  strategus,  invaded  Elis. 
Cleomenes  went  to  the  aid  of  the  Eleians,  and  meeting  the 
Achaeans  at  Mount  Lycaeon,  routed  them  with  great  loss. 
A  report  was  spread  that  Aratus  had  fallen,  but  he  appeared 
before  Mantineia,  and  surprised  it.  Cleomenes,  having 
bribed  the  ephors  to  prolong  his  command,  occupied  a  post 
in  the  Megalopolitan  territory,  named  Ladocea.  Aratus 
came  to  attack  him :  the  Lacedaemonians  were  driven  be- 
yond a  gully,  which  Aratus  would  not  suffer  his  men  to 
cross ;  Lydiades,  in  a  rage,  dashed  on  with  the  horse  who 
were  about  him ;  he  got  engaged  in  a  place  full  of  vines, 
walls  and  ditches ;  Cleomenes  sent  his  light  troops  against 
him,  and  he  fell  fighting  bravely.  The  Lacedaemonians  then 
rallied,  and  defeated  the  whole  Achaean  army.  The  body 
of  Lydiades  was  sent  by  the  victor  to  Megalopolis,  wrapt  in 
purple,  and  crowned. 

Cleomenes  now  deemed  the  time  for  executing  his  plans 


CLEOMENIAN    WAR.  449 

to  be  arrived.  He  told  Megastonous,  his  mother's  husband, 
a  man  of  wealth  and  influence,  that  property  must  be  di- 
vided, and  Sparta  aim  again  at  the  hegemony  of  Greece. 
Megastonous  and  some  of  his  friends  promised  their  aid. 
Cleomenes  then,  with  an  army  in  which  he  took  care  to  have 
those  who  were  most  likely  to  impede  his  designs,  entered 
Arcadia,  where  he  took  the  towns  of  Alsaea  and  Heraea, 
victualled  Orchomenus,  and  sat  down  before  Mantineia. 
Having  harassed  the  Lacedaemonians  by  marches  up  and 
down,  he  left  them,  by  their  own  request,  in  Arcadia,  and 
set  out  with  the  mercenaries  for  Sparta,  intending  to  reach 
it  when  the  ephors  should  be  at  supper. 

When  he  drew  near  to  the  town,  he  sent  Eurycleidas,  one 
of  his  friends,  to  the  ephors  as  the  bearer  of  news  from  the 
army ;  others  followed  with  some  soldiers,  who,  while  he 
was  speaking,  fell  on  and  slew  them  all,  except  one,  who 
escaped,  badly  wounded,  into  the  adjoining  temple  of  Fear. 
Early  in  the  morning,  all  the  seats  of  the  ephors,  but  one, 
were  removed  from  the  market.  An  assembly  was  called, 
and  Cleomenes,  occupying  the  remaining  seat,  justified  his 
conduct,  and  explained  his  designs.  He  himself,  Megas- 
tonous, his  friends,  and  then  all  the  other  citizens,  resigned 
their  property.  The  land  was  divided  into  lots,  and  the 
best  of  the  Perioecians  being  adopted  among  the  Spartans, 
they  now  numbered  four  thousand  hoplites;  the  original 
mode  of  education  and  of  public  meals  was  resumed,  and 
the  country  began  to  put  on  the  aspect  of  old  Laconia.  The 
only  surviving  member  of  the  other  house  having  been  as- 
sassinated, with  Cleomenes'  consent,  as  was  said,  he  joined 
his  brother  Eucleidas  with  him  in  the  royal  dignity,  that 
Sparta  might,  as  heretofore,  have  two  kings.     (Ol.  138,  3.) 

After  some  time,  Cleomenes  led  his  troops  into  Arcadia. 
Having  ravaged  the  territory  of  Megalopolis,  he  took  Man- 
tineia by  surprise,  and  then,  advancing  into  Achaia,  gave 
the  Achaean  army  a  complete  defeat  at  Dyme.  Negotia- 
tions for  peace  were  set  on  foot,  but  to  no  purpose,  and 
Cleomenes   again  entered   Achaia,   and  took  Pellene ;  then 

38*  E  E   E 


450  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

learning  that  the  Achaeans,  fearing  for  Corinth  and  Sicyon, 
had  withdrawn  their  horses  and  mercenaries  from  Argos, 
he  made  a  rapid  march,  and  reaching  that  city  by  night, 
made  himself  master  of  it.  Cleonae  and  Phlius  now  joined 
him  ;  Corinth  sent  to  invite  him ;  the  towns  of  the  Acte 
were  equally  in  his  favor. 

The  ^Etolians  had  long  had  an  understanding  with  Cle- 
omenes,  and  Ptolemaeus  of  Egypt  had  preferred  his  alliance 
to  that  of  the  Achaeans.  Aratus,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
opened  a  negotiation  with  Antigonus  Doson,  of  Mace- 
donia, who  had  promised  his  aid  on  condition  of  Corinth 
being  given  up  to  him ;  and  the  pride  of  Aratus  and  his 
jealousy  of  the  young  Spartan  king  made  him  prefer  undoing 
all  his  work,  and  bringing  Peloponnesus  again  under  the 
Macedonian  yoke,  to  a  cordial  union  with  the  Lacedae- 
monians for  the  maintenance  of  independence.  He  now 
sent  to  invite  the  Macedonian  to  his  aid.  Antigonus,  whose 
troops  were  ready,  set  out  at  once,  and  as  the  yEtolians  refused 
a  passage  through  Pylae,  he  crossed  over  to  Eubcea,  and  thence 
advanced  to  the  Isthmus.  Cleomenes,  who  was  besieging 
Sicyon,  hastened  to  Corinth  when  he  heard  of  the  march  of 
Antigonus,  and  he  ran  a  ditch  and  rampart  across  the  space 
between  the  Aero-Corinth,  and  the  Oneian  Mountains.  An- 
tigonus vainly  endeavored  to  force  a  passage,  and  he  would 
probably  have  been  obliged  to  retire,  but  that  an  insurrec- 
tion against  the  Spartans  broke  out  at  Argos.  Aratus 
hastened  thither  with  some  troops :  and  Cleomenes,  fearing 
to  have  an  enemy  in  front  and  rear,  quitted  his  advan- 
tageous position,  and  led  his  troops  to  Argos.  Antigonus 
followed  him,  after  having  secured  Corinth  ;  and  Cleomenes 
was  fighting  within  the  town  when  he  saw  the  Macedonian 
phalanx  descending  into  the  plain,  and  the  horse  making 
for  the  town  :  he  no  longer  hoped  for  success,  and  he  re- 
turned without  delay  to  Sparta,  where  his  admirable  wife 
Agiatis  was  now  lying  dead.  Antigonus  followed,  and 
having  reduced  Belmina  and  some  other  places,  and  given 
them  to  the  Megalopolitans,  proceeded  to  iEgion,  where  the 


CLEOMENIAN    WAR.  451 

synod  of  the  Achaeans  sat,  by  whom  he  was  appointed  chief 
of  the  whole  confederacy.  He  wintered  in  Corinth  and 
Sicyon. 

In  the  spring,  (Ol.  139, 2,)  Antigonus  reentered  Arcadia. 
Tegea  surrendered,  and  he  passed  the  borders  of  Laconia, 
where  some  skirmishing  took  place  between  his  troops  and 
those  of  Cleomenes.  Learning  that  the  garrison  of  Orcho- 
mcnus  had  come  to  the  aid  of  Cleomenes,  he  suddenly  re- 
turned, and  took  the  town  by  assault.  Mantineia  capitu- 
lated, and  Heraea  and  Telphussae  returned  voluntarily  to 
the  Achaean  alliance.  Antigonus  then  sent  his  Macedonian 
troops  home  for  the  winter,  remaining  himself  to  arrange 
matters  with  the  Achaeans.* 

In  the  beginning  of  the  winter,  Cleomenes,  knowing  that 
Megalopolis  was  ill  defended  for  its  extent,  resolved  to  at- 
tempt taking  it  by  surprise.  Three  months  before,  a  similar 
attempt  had  failed ;  but  now,  aided  by  some  Messenian  exiles 
who  were  in  it,  he  entered  it  by  night,  and  after  an  obsti- 
nate conflict,  remained  master  of  it.  The  inhabitants  retired 
to  Messene :  Cleomenes  sent  after  them,  offering  to  restore 
the  town  and  their  property  if  they  would  form  an  alliance 
with  Sparta.  But,  by  the  advice  of  a  young  man  named 
Philopcemon,  they  refused.  He  then  destroyed  the  town, 
gave  the  plunder  to  his  soldiers,  and  sent  the  pictures  and 
statues  to  Sparta. 

With  spring,  Cleomenes  led  his  army  into  the  territory 
of  Argos,  and  began  to  ravage  it;  for  he  knew  that  Antigo- 
nus, who  was  there,  had  dismissed  his  troops,  and  he  hoped 
in  this  way  to  produce  ill  feeling  between  him  and  the  Ar- 
gives.  He  succeeded  so  far  that  they  assembled  round  and 
reviled  Antigonus;  but  he  took  no  heed  of  what  they  said. 
Cleomenes  then  retired ;  and  when  summer  came,  (Ol.  139, 
3,)  Antigonus  assembled  his  whole  army,  28,000  foot  and 
1200   horse,  and   advanced  towards  Laconia.     Cleomenes, 

*  He  kept  the  mercenaries  with  him,  (Polyb.  ii.  55.  1) ;  those  whom 
he  sent  home  were  the  phalangites,  who  were  only  militia.  His  object 
of  course  was  to  save  their  pay. 


452  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

having  secured  all  the  other  passes  with  guards,  and  ditches, 
and  ramparts,  posted  himself,  with  twenty  thousand  men,  at 
that  of  Sellasia,  through  which  the  road  runs  to  Argos.  This 
pass  is  formed  by  two  hills,  named  Euas  and  Olympus,  be- 
tween which  flows  a  stream  named  GEnus.  He  drew  a  ditch 
and  rampart  in  front  of  the  hills,  and  he  placed  on  the  Euas 
his  brother  Eucleidas  with  the  Pericecians,  himself  with  the 
Lacedaemonians  and  some  of  the  mercenaries  occupying  the 
other  hill ;  on  the  banks  of  the  stream  stood  the  horse 
and  the  rest  of  the  mercenaries.  Antigonus  encamped  on 
the  banks  of  a  small  stream  named  the  Gorgylus.  Seeing 
no  hopes  of  drawing  Cleomenes  from  his  advantageous  po- 
sition, he  decided  on  attacking  him.  A  division  of  Mace- 
donians and  Illyrians,  supported  by  Cretans,  Acarnanians, 
and  two  thousand  Achaeans,  advanced  against  the  troops  on 
the  hill  Euas.  The  Macedonian  horse,  supported  by  two 
thousand  Achaean  and  Megalopolitan  foot,  were  opposed  to 
the  enemies'  horse  in  the  valley.  Antigonus  himself  led  the 
Macedonian  and  mercenary  troops  against  those  with  Cle- 
omenes on  Olympus. 

The  battle  began  by  the  Illyrians  advancing  rapidly  up 
the  front  of  Mount  Euas.  Their  speed  was  such  that  they 
left  far  behind  the  troops  which  were  to  support  them  ;  the 
Lacedaemonian  light  troops  in  the  valley,  seeing  their  rear 
uncovered,  advanced  and  fell  on  them  ;  the  Illyrians,  having 
thus  an  enemy  in  front  and  rear,  fell  into  confusion.  Philo- 
pcemon,  the  Megalopolitan,  urged  the  Macedonian  com- 
manders of  cavalry  to  seize  the  occasion  of  falling  on  the 
enemies'  horse;  but  despising  his  youth,  they  gave  no  heed 
to  him.  He  then,  at  the  head  of  his  native  troops,  charged 
the  Spartan  horse ;  the  light  troops,  quitting  the  Illyrians, 
returned  to  support  their  horse :  the  Illyrians  gained  the 
summit  of  the  hill  unopposed,  and  but  a  brief  resistance  was 
offered  by  the  troops  of  Eucleidas.  Meantime  the  horse  on 
both  sides  were  warmly  engaged;  Philopcemon's  horse  was 
killed  under  him,  and  he  himself  wounded  in  both  the  thighs 
as  he  continued  to  fight  among  the  foot.     At  length  the 


DEATH    OF    CLEOMENES.  453 

Lacedaemonian  horse  were  driven  off  the  field.  The  engage- 
ment between  the  two  kings  was  commenced  by  the  light 
troops :  it  had  continued  for  some  time,  when  Cleomenes 
saw  his  brother  defeated,  and  his  horse  on  the  eve  of  flight. 
Fearing  that  he  should  be  surrounded,  he  broke  down  the 
rampart,  and  led  out  his  phalanx.  The  two  phalanges  en- 
countered ;  the  Macedonians  were  now  yielding  before  the 
steady  valor  of  the  Spartans,  now  repelling  them  by  the 
density  of  their  mass,  when  Antigonus,  adopting  the  form 
of  the  double  phalanx,  made  a  steady  charge.  The  Spartans 
broke  and  fled.  Cleomenes,  seeing  all  was  over,  hastened  with 
some  horsemen  to  Sparta,  whence  he  proceeded  without 
delay  to  Gytheion,  where  he  had  ships  lying  ready  for  the 
purpose,  and  getting  on  board  with  his  friends  made  sail 
for  Egypt.  Antigonus  led  his  army  to  Sparta,  where  he 
restored  the  former  constitution.  He  staid  there  but  a 
few  days,  as  news  of  an  irruption  of  the  Illyrians  called  him 
back  to  Macedonia.  At  Tegea,  he  put  things  on  their  old 
footing  as  at  Sparta.  Passing  thence  to  Argos,  he  was  pres- 
ent at  the  Nemean  games,  where  he  received  every  kind 
of  honor  from  the  various  states  of  the  League.  By  rapid 
marches  he  soon  reached  Macedonia;  he  found  the  Illyrians 
in  that  country,  and  he  overthrew  them  in  a  pitched  battle ; 
but  exerting  his  voice  too  much  in  the  action,  he  burst  a 
blood-vessel,  which  brought  on  a  disease  of  which  he  shortly 
after  died,  leaving  the  kingdom  to  his  nephew  and  ward 
Philip,  the  grandson  of  Antigonus  Gonnatas. 

The  fate  of  the  gallant  Cleomenes  is  not  to  be  passed  over 
in  silence.  His  reception  by  Ptolema?us  Evergetes  was  kind 
and  flattering,  and  aid  was  promised  to  restore  him  to  his 
kingdom.  But  Ptolemaeus,  dying  soon  after,  was  succeeded 
by  his  son,  surnamed  Philopator,  a  worthless,  luxurious 
prince.  Cleomenes,  as  Antigonus  was  now  dead,  and  his 
success  in  Greece  seemed  almost  certain,  was  urgent  to  be 
let  to  depart.  But  those  who  directed  affairs  in  Egypt  were 
now  more  apprehensive  of  him  than  of  Philip  and  the 
Achasans ;  they  made  one  excuse  or   another  for  delay,  and 


454  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

at  length  they  placed  him  in  confinement.  The  royal  Spar- 
tan now  gave  up  all  hopes,  and  only  aspired  to  fall  with 
glory.  Taking  advantage  of  the  absence  of  the  king,  who 
was  gone  to  Canopus,  he  spread  a  report  that  he  was  speed- 
ily to  be  liberated,  and  took  advantage  of  the  occasion  to 
give  an  entertainment  to  his  servants  and  to  the  guards  that 
were  over  him.  When  these  last  were  drunk,  he  issued 
forth  at  noon,  accompanied  by  his  friends  and  slaves,  armed 
with  drawn  daggers,'  and  went  through  the  streets  calling 
the  people  to  liberty.  But  the  call  was  unheeded  ;  and  an 
attempt  to  seize  the  castle  failed.  Nothing  remained  now 
but  to  die,  and  with  Spartan  resolution  they  ended  their 
lives  with  their  own  hands.  Pttffcmaeus,  on  his  return,  as 
cowardice  is  cruel,  put  to  death  the  mother  and  children  of 
the  Spartan  king,  and  all  the  women  who  were  with  them  ; 
and  by  his  order  the  dead  body  of  Cleomenes  was  flayed 
and  hung  on  a  cross.     (01.  139,  4.) 

"  Thus,"  says  Polybius, "  perished  Cleomenes,  a  man  ready 
in  conversation,  and  expert  in  the  management  of  affairs,  and, 
in  one  word,  a  king  and  a  general  by  nature." 


CHAPTER  VII.* 


THE  JETOLIANS  IN  PELOPONNESUS.  SYNOD  AT  CORINTH.  

CONFEDERATE  WAR. DEATH  AND  CHARACTER  OF  ARATUS. 

Antigonus  had,  during  the  late  war,  established  a  league, 
embracing  the  Achocans,  Epirotes,  Phocians,  Macedonians, 
Boeotians,  Arcadians,  and  Thessalians,  of  which  he  was  him- 
self the  head.  He  held  the  Aero-Corinth  and  Orchomenus 
in  Peloponnesus,  so  that  its  dependence  on  Macedonia  and 
the  continuance  of  peace  seemed  secure.     The  ^Etolians, 

*  Polyb.  iv.  J  v.  1—30,  91—106.     Plut.,  Arutus. 


THE    JETOLIANS    IN    PELOPONNESUS.  455 

however,  soon  disturbed  this  state  of  tranquillity,  and  brought 
eventual  ruin  on  Greece  and  Macedonia. 

This  people,  whose  plundering  habits  had  been  kept  out 
of  exercise  during  the  lifetime  of  Antigonus,  on  his  death, 
despising  the  youth  of  Philip,  resolved  to  rest  no  longer. 
They  began  to  raise  disturbance  in  the  following  manner. 
The  town  of  Phigaleia  in  Arcadia,  on  the  borders  of  Mes- 
sene,  being  in  alliance  with  them,  they  sent  thither  a  man 
named  Dorimachus,  under  the  pretext  of  protecting  it,  but 
in  reality  to  watch  the  state  of  affairs  in  Peloponnesus.  A 
number  of  freebooters  resorted  to  him  there,  and,  as  he  had 
no  employment  for  them,  he  gave  them  leave  to  plunder 
Messene,  though  it  was  then  in  alliance  with  ^Etolia.  As 
he  had  himself  a  share  in  the  plunder,  he  gave  no  heed  to 
the  complaints  of  the  Messenians,  but  at  length  he  said  he 
would  go  to  Messene,  and  inquire  into  the  truth.  While  he 
was  there,  the  freebooters  had  the  audacity  to  come  and 
plunder  a  house  close  to  the  town;  the  ephors  were  highly 
incensed,  and  one  of  them  declared  that  he  should  not  quit 
the  place  till  he  had  made  good  all  the  damage  that  had  been 
done  in  Messene,  and  given  up  those  who  had  taken  away 
lives.  Dorimachus  stormed  and  threatened  in  vain;  he 
was  obliged  to  consent,  and  he  returned  breathing  vengeance 
to  ^Etolia. 

Ariston,  the  ^Etolian  strategus,  being  in  infirm  health, 
left  the  management  of  affairs  almost  entirely  to  one  of  his 
relatives,  named  Scopas.  Dorimachus,  who  was  also  a  rela- 
tive, now  bent  all  his  efforts  to  gain  Scopas  to  his  views.  He 
represented  what  plunder  Messene  would  afford,  as  it  had 
been  untouched  all  through  the  late  war,  and  what  little 
chance  the  Messenians  had  of  being  aided  by  any  other 
people  \  as  almost  all  were  ill  disposed  towards  them.  Sco- 
pas and  his  friends  entered  readily  into  this  project.  With- 
out consulting  the  general  synod,  they  secretly  sent  a  party 
of  troops  to  seize  a  stronghold  named  Clarion,  in  the  Me- 
galopolitan  territory.  This,  however,  was  soon  recovered 
by  the  Achaean  strategus  Timoxenus ;  but  they  shortly  after 


456  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

sent  a  large  force  over  to  Rhion,  which  marched  through 
Achaea,  plundering  on  the  way,  and  fixing  itself  at  Phigaleia, 
began  to  ravage  Messene.  The  Messenians  called  on  the 
Achaeans  to  assist  them  ;  and,  incensed  at  the  ravage  of  their 
lands,  they  readily  promised  aid.  Aratus,  who  was  the  next 
strategus,  five  days  before  he  entered  on  his  office,  ordered 
all  of  a  fit  age  to  appear  in  arms  at  Megalopolis.  At  the 
appointed  time  all  were  present.  Messenian  deputies  also 
came,  praying  to  be  admitted  into  the  League  ;  this  they  were 
told  could  not  be  done  without  tBe  consent  of  King  Philip  and 
the  other  allies ;  but  they  were  assured  of  aid  if  they  would 
place  their  children  at  Lacedaemon  as  security  for  their  not 
making  peace  without  the  Achaeans.  A  Lacedaemonian 
army  was  also  there,  but  more  with  the  intention  of  watch- 
ing the  progress  of  events  than  any  thing  else. 

Orders  were  sent  to  the  JEtolians  to  evacuate  Messene, 
and  not  to  enter  Achaia;  and  Dorimachus  and  Scopas, 
fearing  the  power  of  the  Confederates,  prepared  to  obey. 
They  sent  for  ships  to  carry  away  their  booty,  and  entered 
the  friendly  territory  of  Elis.  Aratus  dismissed  his  forces 
all  but  three  thousand  foot  and  three  hundred  horse,  and 
those  of  Taurion,  the  Macedonian  commandant  in  Pelopon- 
nesus, with  which  he  kept  within  a  short  distance  of  the 
iEtolians.  Dorimachus  and  Scopas,  who  had  resolved  to 
embark  at  Rhion,  deeming  that  they  must  fight,  thought  it 
best  to  do  so  at  once.  They  turned  into  Arcadia,  and  en- 
camped at  Methydrion  in  the  Megalopolitis.  Aratus,  who 
was  at  Cleitor,  advanced  and  encamped  at  Caphyae;  and 
when  the  ^Etolians  came  by  Orchomenus,  he  drew  out  his 
forces  to  oppose  them.  The  ^Etolians,  seeing  the  position 
and  spirit  of  the  Achaeans,  dropped  all  thoughts  of  fighting, 
and  keeping  to  the  high  grounds  by  Oligyrtus,  thought  to 
pass  them.  But  just  as  their  horse,  which  brought  up  the 
rear,  were  leaving  the  low  ground,  Aratus,  with  his  usual 
imprudence  in  the  field,  gave  orders  to  attack  them.  An 
engagement  ensued,  and  as  the  advantage  of  position  was 
now  entirely  on  the  side  of  the   ^Etolians,  it  ended  in  the 


THE    iETOLIANS    IN    PELOPONNESUS.  457 

total  rout  of  the  Achaeans,  who  fled  to  Orchomenus  and 
Caphyae.  The  ^Etolians,  having  made  an  attempt  on  Pel- 
lene,  and  ravaged  the  lands  of  Sicyon,  returned  home  by  the 
Isthmus. 

When  the  synod  of  the  Achaeans  met,  Aratus  was  highly 
and  justly  blamed  for  what  had  occurred :  but  his  excuses 
so  satisfied  the  grateful  and  generous  people  that  they  con- 
fided in  him  as  before.  It  was  resolved  to  send  to  inform 
Philip  and  the  other  allies  of  the  conduct  of  the  ^Etolians, 
and  to  call  on  them  to  aid  the  Messenians,  to  admit  them 
into  the  League,  and  to  assist  them  if  attacked  again.  The 
JEtolians,  on  their  side,  set  forth  a  declaration  of  peace 
with  the  Lacedaemonians,  Messenians,  and  all  others  ;  and 
with  the  Achaeans  also,  if  they  renounced  the  alliance  with 
the  Messenians,  if  not,  of  war,  —  than  which,  says  the  histo- 
rian, nothing  was  ever  more  irrational. 

Just  at  this  time,  two  Illyrians,  Scerdilai'das  and  Deme- 
trius the  Pharian,  set  out  pirating  with  ninety  barks. 
They  parted  on  the  coast  of  Messene,  the  latter  going  on 
with  fifty  to  plunder  the  Cyclades,  the  former  returning 
home.  But  stopping  at  Naupactus,  he  was  induced  to 
join  in  an  expedition  into  Peloponnesus ;  for  the  people  of 
Cynaetha  in  Arcadia,  being  in  alliance  with  the  Achaeans, 
had  at  this  time  permitted  their  exiles  to  return,  and  even 
made  some  of  them  polemarchs.  But  heedless  of  their 
oaths,  the  exiles  secretly  invited  the  iEtolians ;  and  when 
they  came,  the  polemarchs  admitted  them  in  the  night.  The 
iEtolians  butchered  all  in  the  place,  beginning  with  the 
traitors,  and  plundered  the  town.  Having  then  pillaged 
a  temple  of  Artemis,  and  made  a  vain  attempt  on  Cleitor, 
they  made  the  best  of  their  way  to  Rhion,  and  got  across 
before  Demetrius  the  Pharian,  whose  ships  Taurion  had 
hauled  over  the  Isthmus,  could  intercept  them. 

When  King  Philip  came  to  Corinth,  he  sent  to  summon 
deputies  thither  from  all  the  confederates ;  and  in  the  mean 
time,  as  some  troubles  had  arisen  in  Sparta,  he  led  his  army 
into  Arcadia.     Having  composed  the  affairs  of  Sparta,  he 

39  F  F  F 


458  t  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

returned  to  Corinth,  where  he  found  the  deputies  assembled. 
The  various  acts  of  aggression  and  injustice  of  the  jEtoliana 
being  exposed,  a  decree  was  made  that  they  should  be  com- 
pelled to  give  up  all  they  had  unlawfully  acquired  since 
the  time  of  King  Demetrius.  This  decree  opened  the  Con- 
federate War.     (Ol.  140,  1.) 

After  a  futile  effort  to  induce  the  ^Etolians  to  accommo- 
date matters  in  a  friendly  way,  Philip  returned  home  to 
make  preparations  for  war. 

The  envoys  who  were  sent  to  the  different  states  came 
first  to  Acarnania,  where  the  people,  always  upright  and 
lovers  of  liberty,  though  most  exposed  to  danger,  at  once 
prepared  for  war.  The  Epirotes  said  they  would  take  the 
field  when  Philip  did  so ;  while  they  assured  the  ./Etolians 
they  would  maintain  the  peace.  The  Messenians,  the 
origin  of  the  war,  said  they  would  not  go  to  war  till 
Phigaleia  was  taken  from  the  ^Etolians.  The  Spartans 
were  again  in  confusion;  the  ephors  and  the  elder  men 
were  for  being  faithful  to  the  Macedonian  interest,  the 
young  men  and  the  party  of  Cleomenes  for  joining  the 
JEtolians.  The  former  had  prevailed,  and  the  ^Etolian 
envoys  had  departed,  when  suddenly  some  young  men  fell 
on  and  slaughtered  the  ephors,  as  they  were  sacrificing  in 
the  temple  of  the  Chalcioecos.  They  murdered  some  of  the 
other  party,  banished  others ;  then  created  ephors  from 
among  themselves,  and  formed  an  alliance  with  the  ^Etolians. 
Intelligence  arriving  of  the  death  of  Cleomenes,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  appoint  kings.  Of  the  house  of  Agis  they  chose 
Agesipolis,  the  infant  grandchild  of  Cleombrotus ;  and 
though  there  were  many  of  the  other  house  alive,  a  man 
named  Lycurgus,  no  Heracleid,  obtained  the  throne,  by 
giving  the  ephors  a  talent  each.  To  show  themselves  worthy 
allies  of  the  ^Etolians,  the  ephors  sent  Lycurgus  with  an 
army  to  ravage  the  territory  of  the  Argives,  with  whom  they 
were  at  peace.  The  Eleians  were  also  persuaded  by  the 
JEtolians  to  declare  war  against  the  Achaians. 

King  Philip,  at  length,  (01.  140,  2,)  set  out  at  the  head 


CONFEDERATE    WAR.  459 

of  10,000  phalangites,  5000  peltasts,  and  800  horse.  He 
marched  through  Thessaly  into  Epeirus  with  the  intention 
of  invading  ^Etolia.  Instead  of  entering  iEtolia  at  once, 
as  he  should  have  done,  he,  at  the  urgent  desire  of  the 
Epirotes,  laid  siege  to  Ambracia,  which  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  ^Etolians ;  and  while  he  was  engaged  in  the  siege  of 
this  strong  town,  Scopas,  collecting  an  army,  marched 
rapidly  through  Thessaly,  and  entering  Macedonia,  rav- 
aged Pieria,  and  plundered  and  destroyed  the  city  of  Dion. 
Philip,  on  hearing  of  this,  redoubled  his  efforts;  he  took 
Ambracia,  and  gave  it  to  the  Epirotes;  he  then  advanced 
into  Acarnania,  whence  he  entered  ^Etolia,  and  ravaged  the 
country,  and  destroyed  the  towns.  He  was  preparing,  at  the 
desire  of  the  Achoeans,  to  cross  over  and  invade  Elis,  when 
tidings  came  that  the  Dardanians  were  about  to  take  advan- 
tage of  his  absence  and  ravage  Macedonia.  He  returned 
home  without  delay,  where  finding  that  they  had  laid  aside 
their  intentions,  he  dismissed  his  troops  to  gather  in  the 
harvest. 

The  ^Etolians  had,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year,  in  their 
usual  way,  made  a  nocturnal  attempt  on  the  town  of  ^Egira, 
on  the  coast  between  iEgion  and  Sicyon.  They  crossed  the 
gulf  in  the  night ;  traitors  opened  a  gate ;  they  had  the  town, 
and  were  dispersed  plundering,  when  the  ^Egirates  rallied 
and  drove  them  out  with  great  slaughter.  Euripidas,  the 
iEtolian  commander  in  Elis,  ravaged  the  lands  of  Dyme, 
Pharae,  and  Tritaea  ;  and  the  people  of  these  places,  having 
applied  in  vain  to  the  younger  Aratus,  now  the  Achaean 
strategus,  for  troops,  raised  money  among  themselves,  and 
took  some  mercenaries  into  pay.  Lycurgus,  the  Spartan 
king,  took  the  Athenaeon  in  the  Megalopolitis,  and  Euripi- 
das the  castle  of  Gorgos  near  Telphussa. 

Dorimachus  was  now  appointed  strategus  of  JStolia,  and 
his  first  act  was  to  collect  troops  and  make  an  irruption 
into  Epeirus,  where  he  destroyed  the  votive  offerings  at 
Dodona,  and  burned  and  razed  the  ancient  hallowed  fane  of 
Zeus ;  for  in  the  eyes  of  the  yEtolians  sacred  and  profane 


460  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

were  indifferent.  The  active  young  king  of  Macedonia 
soon  after,  though  it  was  winter,  took  3000  Chalcaspids,* 
2000  peltasts,  300  Cretans,  and  400  horse,  and  passed  over 
to  Eubcea,  whence  he  proceeded  to  Corinth,  where  he  ar- 
rived about  midwinter.  He  closed  the  gates  that  his  arri- 
val might  not  be  known,  and  sent  secretly  to  Sicyon  for 
Aratus;  he  also  sent  letters  to  the  Confederates,  telling 
them  when  and  where  to  meet  him  in  arms.  He  then  went 
and  encamped  in  Phliasia.  Just  at  this  time,  Euripidas  had 
set  out  from  Psophis  at  the  head  of  two  thousand  two 
hundred  Eleians,  freebooters  and  mercenaries,  on  a  plunder- 
ing excursion  to  Sicyon.  He  passed  the  camp  of  the  king 
in  the  night ;  but  learning  his  proximity  in  the  morning,  he 
retraced  his  steps  in  haste,  hoping  to  reach  the  heights  of 
Stymphalus  in  time.  Philip,  who  intended  to  march  by 
Stymphalus  to  Caphyae,  where  he  had  appointed  the  Achaeans 
to  meet  him,  also  set  out  in  the  morning,  and  the  two  armies 
chanced  to  meet  ten  stadia  this  side  of  Stymphalus.  Eurip- 
idas fled  with  the  horse  to  Psophis ;  and  the  Eleians,  when 
they  saw  that  the  foes  were  Macedonians,  and  not  Megalo- 
politans  as  they  had  at  first  supposed,  flung  away  their  arms, 
and  took  to  flight;  but  not  more  than  one  hundred  escaped, 
the  rest  being  slain  or  taken.  Having  crossed  Mount 
Ligyrgus  with  great  labor,  on  account  of  the  snow,  Philip 
came  on  the  third  day  to  Caphyae,  where  he  halted  for  two 
days;  and  being  joined  by  the  younger  Aratus  and  some 
Achaean  troops,  which  raised  his  force  to  10,000  men,  he 
advanced  through  Cleitoria  to  Psophis,  to  which  he  laid 
siege ;  and  though  it  was  strong  by  nature,  and  had  an 
Eleian  garrison,  he  took  the  town  by  storm,  and  the  citadel 
by  capitulation.  Having  reduced  Lasion  and  some  other 
places  in  Arcadia,  he  led  his  army  to  Olympia,  where  having 
sacrificed  to  the  god  and  given  his  troops  three  days'  rest,  he 
entered  Elis.  A  castle  named  Thalamae,  in  which  a  great 
number  of  the  people  had  taken  refuge  with  their  property, 

*  So  named  from  their  brazen  shields. 


CONFEDERATE    WAR.  461 

surrendered  at  his  appearance,  and  he  found  in  it  a  booty 
of  five  thousand  slaves  and  much  valuable  property.  Re- 
turning to  Olympia,  he  entered  Triphylia,  which  the  good- 
will of  the  people  towards  him  enabled  him  to  reduce  in  six 
days.  Having  established  order  in  the  towns,  and  divided 
the  booty  among  his  soldiers,  he  marched  by  Tegea  to  Argos, 
where  he  remained  for  the  rest  of  the  winter,  letting  his 
Macedonians  return  home. 

While  Philip  was  in  Triphylia,  a  new  revolution  was  at- 
tempted in  Sparta.  Cheilon,  a  man  of  the  royal  blood,  in- 
dignant at  Lycurgus  being  preferred  to  himself,  resolved  to 
tread  in  the  steps  of  Cleomenes.  Having  collected  about 
two  hundred  of  his  friends,  he  fell  on  and  slew  the  ephors  at 
their  supper ;  he  then  went  to  the  house  of  Lycurgus,  but 
he  had  contrived  to  make  his  escape.  Disappointed  of  his 
victim,  Cheilon  entered  the  market  and  called  on  the  people 
to  join  him,  holding  out  a  division  of  lands  and  other  in- 
ducements ;  but  no  one  heeding  him,  he  retired,  and  stole 
out  of  the  country  to  Achaia. 

The  time  for  the  election  of  the  strategus  of  the  Achaean 
league  was  now  at  hand,  and  Aratus  and  his  friends  were 
in  favor  of  Timoxenus,  who  was  a  man  of  ability.  But 
Apelles,  one  of  the  guardians  of  the  young  king,  had  con- 
ceived the  design  of  making  Achaia  as  completely  under 
Macedonian  influence  as  Thessaly.  The  ohief  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  this  project  was  Aratus,  whose  influence  with 
Philip  he  therefore  sought  to  diminish  as  much  as  possible. 
He  joined  the  party  in  Achaia  opposed  to  him  ;  and  by  in- 
ducing the  king,  under  pretext  of  a  new  invasion  of  Elis,  to 
be  present  at  ^Egion  during  the  election,  he  caused  the 
choice  to  fall  upon  Eperatus  of  Pharae,  a  man  of  no  talent. 
(Ol.  140,  3.) 

The  king  led  his  troops  into  the  district  of  Dyme,  and  took 
a  strong  place,  named  Teichos,  which  the  ^Etolians  held 
there :  he  then  entered  and  plundered  Elis,  and  brought  the 
booty  to  Dyme.  Apelles  now  openly  accused  Aratus  of 
treachery ;  but  he  triumphantly  repelled  the  charge,  and 
39* 


462  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

stood  higher  than  ever  in  the  king's  favor.  As  money  and 
provisions  were  required  for  the  Macedonian  array,  a  synod 
was  held  at  JEgion;  but  it  appearing  that  Eperatus  had  no 
influence  in  it,  and  that,  on  account  of  Apelles,  Aratus 
would  not  exert  his,  Philip  proposed  its  removal  to  Sicyon. 
He  here  used  all  his  efforts  with  Aratus,  and  the  necessary 
supplies  were  readily  voted. 

Being  resolved  to  make  the  war  partly  naval,  Philip  set 
the  Macedonians  to  learn  to  row  at  Corinth ;  and  when 
they  were  perfect  in  their  exercise,  he  prepared  to  put  to 
sea ;  but  Apelles  had  gone  to  Chalcis,  in  Eubcea,  where  the 
Macedonian  magazines  were,  and  he  prevented  supplies 
being  sent.  Philip,  however,  pawned  his  plate;  Aratus 
exerted  himself;  and  the  fleet  proceeded  to  the  Island  of  Ce- 
phallenia,  which  supplied  the  JEtolians  with  ships  for  their 
piratic  excursions.  The  king  laid  siege  to  Palgea,  one  of 
the  chief  towns  in  the  island.  The  engines  played  on  the 
town,  and  mines  were  run  under  the  walls.  He  called  on 
the  people  to  surrender  ;  on  their  refusal,  fire  was  set  to 
the  props  in  the  mines,  and  two  plethra  of  the  walls  thrown 
down.  The  peltasts  were  ordered  to  storm  ;  they  advanced 
gallantly  ;  but  Leontius,  their  commander,  was  a  friend  of 
Apelles,  and  he  caused  the  attack  to  fail.  Philip,  disheart- 
ened at  this  repulse,  was  thinking  of  raising  the  siege,  when 
the  Messenians  sent  to  implore  aid  against  Lycurgus,  who 
had  invaded  their  country;  and  the  Acarnanians  came  to 
inform  him  that  Dorimachus  had  set  out  with  all  his  forces  for 
Macedonia.  A  council  was  held.  The  Messenians  assured 
the  king,  that  the  Etesian  winds  would  carry  him  to  Messene 
in  one  day.  Leontius,  who  knew  that  if  the  Etesian  winds 
took  him  thither,  they  would  keep  him  there,  strongly  ad- 
vocated this  course.  Aratus  advised  an  immediate  invasion 
of  ^Etolia;  his  advice  was  approved  by  the  king;  orders 
were  sent  to  Eperatus  to  collect  a  force  and  relieve  the  Mes- 
senians, and  Philip  sailed  with  his  army  to  the  Bay  of  Ambra- 
cia,  where  he  landed.  A  rapid  night  march  brought  him  to 
the  Acheloiis,  near  Stratus,  which  he  reached  at  daybreak. 


CONFEDERATE    WAR.  463 

Leontius  now  advised  to  halt  and  rest  the  men ;  Aratus 
urged  expedition ;  the  river  was  crossed  and  the  march  di- 
rected for  Thermon,  the  chief  place  of  iEtolia,  which  they 
reached  early  in  the  day,  and  the  town  and  surrounding 
country  were  plundered.  All  the  booty  which  could  not  be 
carried  away  was  collected  and  burned  ;  and  the  king,  at  the 
instigation  probably  of  Demetrius  the  Pharian,  sullied  his 
fame  by  imitating  Scopas  and  Dorimachus  in  destroying 
the  temples  and  votive  offerings  in  Thermon.  The  army, 
laden  with  booty,  reached  the  Bay  of  Ambracia  in  safety, 
and  having  stopped  for  two  days  at  Leucas,  returned  to 
Corinth.  Dorimachus,  who  had  only  gotten  as  far  as  Thes- 
saly,  where  he  had  not  time  or  opportunity  to  do  mischief, 
arrived  when  too  late  for  the  defence  of  iEtolia. 

At  Corinth  the  king  learned  that  Lycurgus  was  besieging 
Tegea.  He  instantly  issued  orders  to  the  members  of  the 
League  to  repair  thither  in  arms.  He  set  out  himself  with 
his  own  troops ;  and  on  the  seventh  day  from  his  having  left 
the  heart  of  iEtolia,  he  appeared,  to  the  dismay  of  the  Spar- 
tans, on  the  banks  of  the  Eurotas.  He  passed  over  and 
encamped  at  Amyclae,  then  wasted  the  country  to  Taena- 
ron  and  along  the  coast,  and  returned  to  Amyclae.  Lycurgus, 
who  had  defeated  a  body  of  Messenians  that  were  coming 
to  join  the  king,  was  resolved  not  to  suffer  him  to  quit 
Laconia  without  a  battle.  He  took  his  post,  with  about  two 
thousand  men,  on  the  rugged  hills  beyond  the  Eurotas,  op- 
posite Sparta,  directing  the  people  of  the  town  to  be  ready  to 
sally  forth  at  a  given  signal ;  and  he  flooded  the  space  be- 
tween the  town  and  the  river,  so  that  the  only  passage  that 
remained  for  the  invaders  was  along  the  foot  of  the  hills  on 
the  other  side,  where,  for  the  want  of  space,  they  would  have 
to  march  in  a  long  column  exposed  to  the  enemy. 

Philip  saw  that  his  only  course  was  to  dislodge  Lycurgus 
from  his  position.  He  therefore  crossed  the  river  at  the 
head  of  his  mercenaries  and  peltasts,  supported  by  the  II- 
lyrians.  The  Lacedaemonians  drove  back  the  mercenaries  ; 
but  when  the  peltasts  and  Ulyrians  came  up,  they  dispersed 


464        t  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

and  fled  to  the  city,  having  had  about  one  hundred  slain  and 
one  hundred  taken.  Philip,  leaving  the  Ulyrians  in  charge 
of  the  heights,  recrossed  the  river  with  the  rest  to  protect 
the  rear  of  his  phalanx,  which  Aratus  was  leading  from 
Amycloe.  The  phalanx  passed  over  in  safety;  the  horse  and 
light  troops,  having  driven  off  the  horse  which  came  out  of 
the  town,  followed ;  and  the  whole  army,  quitting  Laconia 
unimpeded,  returned  by  Tegea  and  Argos  to  Corinth.  Ly- 
curgus  soon  after  being  unjustly  accused  to  the  ephors  of 
revolutionary  designs,  they  went  to  his  house  by  night  to 
seize  him  ;  but  he  had  had  timely  notice,  and  had  fled  to 
iEtolia.  His  innocence,  however,  becoming  apparent,  he 
was  afterwards  recalled. 

Philip,  having  sent  some  Chian  and  Rhodian  envoys,  whom 
he  found  in  Corinth,  to  iEtolia  to  treat  of  peace,  went  to 
Lechaion  to  embark  for  Phocis,  where  he  had  some  affairs 
of  importance  to  transact.  Leontius,  and  his  friends  Mega- 
leas  and  Ptolemseus,  seized  this  opportunity  of  exciting  a 
mutiny  in  the  Macedonian  army.  The  soldiers  committed 
some  excesses  ;  but  the  return  of  the  king  speedily  reduced 
them  to  obedience.  Philip  dissembled  his  knowledge  of  the 
authors ;  Apelles  came  to  Corinth  at  the  desire  of  Leontius ; 
and  the  matter  finally  ended  in  Megaleas,  who  had  fled  to 
Thebes,  putting  an  end  to  himself,  Apelles  and  his  son 
dying,  (it  is  not  said  how,)  and  Leontius  and  Ptolemseus 
being  executed. 

The  iEtolians,  who  were  very  desirous  of  peace,  had  agreed 
to  a  conference  at  Rhion  ;  but  to  the  great  joy  of  Philip, 
who  wished  the  war  to  continue,  they  put  it  off  when  they 
heard  of  the  mutiny.  The  king,  having  exhorted  the 
Achaeans  to  prepare  for  war,  returned  to  Macedonia  for 
the  winter. 

In  the  spring,  (01.  140,  4,)  the  strategy  of  the  worthless 
Eperatus  being  expired,  the  elder  Aratus  was  appointed  to 
that  office  for  the  fifteenth  time,  and  he  set  vigorously  to 
work  to  repair  the  faults  of  his  predecessor.  Philip,  having 
secured  Macedonia  against  the  Dardanians,  and  taken  Meli- 


TERMINATION    OF    THE    CONFEDERATE    WAR.  465 

teia  and  the  Phthiotic  Thebes  in  Thessaly,  hastened  to  Pelo- 
ponnesus to  resume  the  war  against  the  iEtolians.  But 
while  he  was  assisting  at  the  Nemean  games,  letters  came 
from  Macedonia  informing  him  of  the  great  defeat  which 
Hannibal  had  given  the  Romans  at  the  Thrasimene  Lake. 
He  showed  them  to  Demetrius  the  Pharian,  enjoining  him 
silence;  the  exiled  Illyrian  instantly  said,  that  he  should 
without  delay  make  peace  with  the  yEtolians,  and  think  only 
of Illyria  and  the  passage  to  Italy;  for  now  that  the  power 
of  the  Romans  was  broken,  he  might  justly  aspire  to  uni- 
versal empire.  Philip  lent  a  ready  ear  to  these  flattering 
suggestions  :  he  sent  an  ^Etolian  prisoner  home  to  inform 
the  JEtolians  of  his  wishes,  and  he  led  his  troops  to  _/Egion. 
Lest,  however,  by  remaining  in  their  vicinity,  he  might  ap- 
pear too  anxious  for  peace,  he  went  to  Lasion  in  Arcadia,  and 
made  a  feint  of  invading  Elis. 

After  some  negotiation,  the  king,  at  the  desire  of  the 
iEtolians,  crossed  over  with  his  army  and  encamped  near 
Naupactus,  for  the  sake  of  more  speedy  communication. 
A  distinguished  Naupactian,  named  Agelaus,  represented 
with  much  eloquence  the  imperious  necessity  of  strict 
union  among  the  Greeks  under  actual  circumstances,  for 
that  assuredly,  whether  Romans  or  Carthaginians  came  off 
victors,  in  the  present  contest,  they  would  turn  their  views 
eastwards;  whereas  united  Greece,  under  the  king  of  Mace- 
donia, might  achieve  the  conquest  of  the  world.  Peace  was 
concluded,  under  the  condition  of  all  parties  remaining  as 
they  were  ;  and  thus  terminated  the  Confederate  War. 

Philip's  eyes  were  now  steadily  directed  towards  Italy. 
He  saw  that  he  must  join  one  side  or  other :  the  Cartha- 
ginians, as  the  more  distant,  he  deemed  the  safer  allies ;  and 
after  the  decisive  battle  of  Cannae,  (01.  141,  1,)  he  formed  an 
offensive  and  defensive  alliance  with  Hannibal.  The  follow- 
ing year  he  prepared  a  fleet  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  ships, 
with  which  (Ol.  141,  3)  he  attacked  Oricum  and  Apollonia, 
towns  of  Epirus  in  alliance  with  Rome  ;  but  the  praetor 
M.  Valerius  Loevinus,  who  was  with  a  fleet  on  the  coast  of 

G  G  G 


466  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

Calabria,  sailed  over,  and  entering  Apollonia  unobserved, 
fell  by  night  on  the  Macedonian  camp,  slew  three  thousand 
men,  took  most  of  the  remainder,  and  Philip  himself  escaped 
with  difficulty.* 

The  character  of  Philip  was  by  this  time  totally  changed. 
He  was,  to  use  the  strong  words  of  the  historian,  "  not 
actually  become  a  wolf  from  a  man,  according  to  the  Arca- 
dian fable,  but  from  a  king  a  bitter  tyrant."  We  need  not 
therefore  wonder  that  the  counsels  and  the  presence  of  the 
virtuous  Aratus  were  disagreeable  to  him.  He  had  even 
injured  his  family  honor  by  debauching,  in  breach  of  hospi- 
tality, the  wife  of  his  son.  This  produced  a  quarrel ;  the 
king  signified  to  Taurionf  his  desire  to  be  rid  of  the  old 
strategus ;  a  slow  poison,  it  is  said,  soon  carried  him  to  his 
grave,  (Ol.  141,  2,)  in  the  sixtieth  year  of  his  age  and  his 
seventeenth  strategy,  and  his  son  shortly  afterwards  died 
mad.  Aratus  was  mourned  by  the  whole  League;  his 
body  was  interred  with  solemnity  in  his  .native  town,  and  a 
Heroon,  named  from  him  the  Arateion,  erected  over  it,  at 
which  sacrifices  were  duly  offered  as  to  a  hero. 

Aratus  is  one  of  those  who  have  attained  to  eminence 
without  being,  properly  speaking,  great.  He  was  notori- 
ously deficient  in  physical  courage,  and  hence  probably 
arose  the  timid  caution  which  distinguished  his  policy. 
His  ambition  was  inordinate,  and  he  was  jealous  of  every 
man  of  ability.  Sooner,  therefore,  than  see  Cleomenes  at 
the  head  of  the  League,  he  undid  all  his  work,  and  reduced 
Peloponnesus  under  the  Macedonian  power;  and,  as  we 
have  just  seen,  he  met  with  his  appropriate  reward.  The 
man,  however,  who  could  possess  the  political  influence 
which  he  did,  throughout  his  life,  could  not  have  been  an 
ordinary  person. 

*  Livy,  xxiv.  40. 
t  Polyb.  viii.  14*    Plut.  Arat.  52. 


WAR   BETWEEN    PHILIP    AND    THE    .ETOLIANS.        467 

CHAPTER    VIIL* 

WAR  BETWEEN  PHILIP  AND  THE  iETOLIANS. WAR    BETWEEN 

PHILIP  AND  THE  ROMANS. BATTLE  OF  CYNOSCEPHALjE. 

PEACE      BETWEEN      PHILIP      AND      ROME. INDEPENDENCE 

PROCLAIMED    TO    GREECE. 

Greece  remained  at  peace  for  four  years  after  the  death 
of  Aratus ;  but  the  Romans,  whose  prospects  were  bright- 
ening now  that  they  had  taken  Capua  and  Syracuse,  were 
resolved  to  be  revenged  on  Philip  for  the  part  he  had  taken 
against  them.  M.  Valerius  Laevinus,  who  had  long  been  in 
secret  communication  with  the  JEtolian  leaders,  came  in 
person  (01.  142,  2)  to  the  national  synod,  and  by  the 
promise  of  aiding  them  in  the  conquest  of  Acarnania, 
engaged  them  to  declare  war  against  Philip,  in  concert  with 
Rome.  The  Lacedaemonians  and  Eleians,  Attalus  king  of 
Pergamus,  and  some  others,  were,  if  they  wished,  to  be  in- 
cluded in  the  alliance.f 

As  Philip  was  now  engaged  in  Thrace,  Scopas,  the  ^Eto- 
lian  strategus,  collected  his  whole  force  and  invaded  Acar- 
nania. But  the  gallant  Acarnanians  had  sent  their  wives, 
children,  and  old  men  into  Epirus,  and  binding  themselves 
by  a  solemn  oath  never  to  return  unless  victorious,  advanced 
to  the  frontiers.  The  ^Etolians,  daunted  by  their  resolu- 
tion and  by  the  tidings  of  the  approach  of  Philip,  retired 
without  venturing  a  battle. 

The  following  spring,  (Ol.  142,  3,)  Laevinus  sailed  from 
Corcyra  into  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  and  aided  the  JEtolians 
to  take  the  town  of  Anticyra,  on  the  coast  of  the  Ozolian 
Locris ;  but  letters  which  came  from  Rome  to  inform  him 
of  his  being  chosen  consul,  put  a  stop  to  further  operations. 

*  Liv.  xxvii.  29 — 23.  xxviii.  5 — 8.  xxxii.  xxxiii.  xxxiv.  (This  writer 
may  be  here  regarded  as  the  translator  of  Polybius.)  Plut.,  Philop. 
and  Flamininus. 

t  Liv.  xxvi.  24. 


463  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

During  the  time  which  elapsed  before  the  arrival  of 
Laevinus'  successor,  the  ^Etolians  employed  themselves 
in  gaining  allies.  The  Eleians  had  already  declared  for 
them,  and  they  now  sent  an  embassy,  headed'  by  Cleonicus 
and  Chlaeneas,  two  of  their  most  distinguished  men,  to 
Lacedaemon.  The  Acarnanians"  despatched  an  embassy 
thither  also,  headed  by  Lyciscus.  Chlseneas  dilated  on 
the  injuries  of  the  Macedonians,  and  the  long  friendship 
between  ^Etolia  and  Lacedaemon :  Lyciscus  eloquently  de- 
fended the  Macedonians,  detailed  the  unjust  deeds  of  the 
^Etolians,  and  took  a  statesmanlike  view  of  the  danger  of 
allowing  the  Romans  to  meddle  in  the  affairs  of  Greece.* 
We  are  not  told  what  was  the  immediate  effect  of  these 
speeches  at  Sparta.  We  are  left  equally  in  the  dark  as  to 
the  state  of  the  government  there;  all  we  can  learn  is,  that 
Lycurgus  was  now  dead,  and  that  a  man  named  Machanidas, 
who  is  called  a  tyrant,  had,  in  what  way  we  know  not,  pos- 
sessed himself  of  the  supreme  power. 

P.  Sulpicius  having  come  out  as  successor  to  Laevinus, 
the  war  was  renewed.  (Ol.  143,  1.)  The  Achasans,  pressed 
on  one  side  by  Machanidas,  on  the  other  by  the  ./Etolians, 
sent  to  call  on  Philip.  As  he  was  coming  to  their  aid,  he 
found  at  Lamia  an  ^Etolian  army,  in  which  were  a  thousand 
Romans  and  some  troops  sent  by  Attalus.  He  gave  them 
two  defeats;  and  having  put  Eubcea  in  a  state  of  defence 
against  Attalus,  he  came  to  Argos,  and  thence  proceeded 
to  Rhion  to  try  if  peace  could  be  effected,  so  as  to  keep  the 
Romans  and  Attalus  out  of  Greece.  But  as  the  Romans 
were  now  at  Naupactus,  and  Attalus  at  JEgina,  nothing 
could  be  done  with  the  insolent  and  faithless  iEtolians. 
He  returned  to  Argos  to  solemnize  the  Nemean  games, 
and  while  he  was  thus  engaged,  Sulpicius  landed  and  rav- 
aged the  coast  between  Sicyon  and  Corinth ;  but  Philip, 
with  his  wonted  ypeed,  appeared  with  his  horse,  and  drove 
the  Romans  to  their  ships.     When  the  games  were  over,  he 

*  Polyb.  ix.  28—39. 


WAR    BETWEEN    PHILIP    AND    THE    ^TOLIANS.         469 

led  his  troops  to  Dyme,  and  being  joined  by  the  Achaeans 
under  the  strategus  Cycliadas,  invaded  Elis.  Sulpicius 
sailed  round  to  Cyllene,  and  secretly  landed  four  thousand 
men  to  join  the  Eleians  and  ^tolians.  The  sight  of  the 
Roman  ensigns  somewhat  daunted  the  king;  but  he  gave 
them  battle,  and  his  horse  being  killed  under  him,  he  nar- 
rowly escaped  being  taken  or  slain.  The  advantage,  how- 
ever, was  on  his  side,  and  he  advanced  plundering  the 
country  till  tidings  of  a  rebellion  called  him  home.  He  left 
two  thousand  five  hundred  men  with  the  Achaeans,  who  soon 
after  gave  the  enemy  a  complete  defeat  near  Messene. 

The  next  summer,  (Ol.  143,  2,)  Attalus  and  Sulpicius 
sailed  to  Lemnos  and  Peparethos.  They  then  came  to 
Eubcea,  where  the  town  of  Oreos  was  betrayed  to  them 
by  the  Macedonian  governor  ;  but  their  attempt  on  Chalcis 
failed.  Philip  hastened  to  the  defence  of  Euboea  ;  he  drove 
off  the  ^Etolians  who  were  guarding  Thermopylae,  and 
chased  Attalus,  who  was  plundering  Opus,  to  his  ships. 
At  Elateia  he  met  ambassadors  sent  by  King  Ptolemaeus 
of  Egypt  and  the  Rhodians  to  mediate  a  peace ;  but  ere 
he  could  do  more  than  speak  with  them,  he  heard  that 
Machanidas  had  invaded  Elis.  He  instantly  set  out  for 
Peloponnesus;  Machanidas  retired  at  his  approach:  he  gave 
Heraea  and  Triphylia  to  the  Achaeans,  then  ravaged  vEtolia; 
and  having  on  his  return  home  given  orders  to  build  a  hun- 
dred ships  for  the  next  campaign,  he  turned  his  arms  against 
the  Dardanians. 

The  following  year,  (Ol.  143,  3,)  the  JEtolians  remained 
quiet,  bat  Machanidas  was  still  in  arms  against  the  Achae- 
ans. PhilopoenMm,  who  was  the  strategus,  had  by  his  pre- 
cepts and  example  infused  great  military  ardor  in  the 
people  of  the  Leigue ;  he  had  greatly  improved  their  arms 
and  their  discipline,  and  now,  after  eight  months'  exercise, 
he  led  them  out  against  the  Spartan  tyrant.  He  took  his 
position  behind  a  deep  ditch,  close  to  Mantineia,  placing 
the  phalanx  in  the  centre,  the  mercenaries  and  light  troops 
on  the  left,  the  cavalry  on  the  right  wing.  Machanidas 
43 


470  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

directed  his  attack  on  the  left  wing,  which  he  routed  and 
chased  off  the  field.  Philopcemon  remained  quiet  till  he 
saw  the  Lacedaemonian  phalanx  left  alone;  he  then  charged 
with  his  phalanx  and  remaining  light  troops,  and  routed  it. 
The  tyrant,  on  his  return,  seeing  his  phalanx  broken,  formed 
the  troops  which  were  with  him  in  a  close  body  to  force  his 
way  through  the  enemy  ;  but  the  Achaeans  occupied  the 
bridge  over  the  ditch,  and  his  men  lost  courage  and  dis- 
persed. Machanidas  rode  with  two  companions  along  the 
ditch,  seeking  a  place  to  cross.  Philopcemon,  who  recog- 
nized the  tyrant,  rode  on  the  opposite  side.  At  length, 
Machanidas,  coming  to  a  practicable  spot,  ran  his  horse  at  it; 
but  the  spear  of  Philopcemon  received  him  as  he  landed, 
and  cast  him  back  dead  into  the  ditch.  The  loss  of  the 
Lacedaemonians  was  four  thousand  slain,  and  a  greater 
number  taken.  The  victors,  having  taken  Tegea  and  en- 
tered and  ravaged  Laconia,  returned  to  Achaia.* 

The  war  now  languished,  and  at  length  (01.  143,  4)  Philip 
compelled  the  ^Etolians  to  make  a  separate  peace.  The 
proconsul  Sempronius,  who  landed  shortly  afterwards  at 
Dyrrhachium,  was  desirous  of  breaking  it;  but,  by  the 
mediation  of  the  Epirotes,  a  peace  was  effected  between 
Philip  and  the  Romans  also.  During  four  or  five  years,  the 
tranquillity  of  Greece  was  only  disturbed  by  an  irruption 
into  Messene  by  Nabis,  who  had  succeeded  Machanidas  in 
the  tyranny  of  Sparta.  He  took  the  chief  town  by  surprise : 
Lysippus,  the  Achaean  strategus,  deeming  it  now  too  late, 
refused  to  send  troops  to  Messene;  but  Philopoemon,  putting 
himself  at  the  head  of  his  fellow-citizens,  went  to  the  relief 
of  their  friends  and  allies,  and  Nabis  retired  at  his  approach. 
Philopcemon,  after  this  action,  impatient  oi  repose,  went  to 
Crete  to  command  the  troops  of  the  Gortynrans,  and  he  re- 
mained there  for  some  years. 

At  length  the  Romans,  having  vanquished  Hannibal, 
turned  their  thoughts  to  the  king  of  Macedonia,  and  war, 
on  various  pretences,  was  declared   against  him.     A  chief 

*  Polyb.  xi.  9—18. 


WAR    BETWEEN    PHILIP    AND    THE    ROMANS.  471 

pretext  was  afforded  by  Athens,  now  one  of  the  feeblest 
states  in  Greece.  Two  young  Acarnanians  who  were  there, 
had,  at  the  time  of  the  Mysteries,  unawares  entered  the 
temple  of  Demeter  and  the  Kora,  with  the  crowd  of  the  Initi- 
ated. The  questions  which  they  asked  betraying  them, 
they  were  seized  and  put  to  death.  Their  countrymen, 
having  obtained  permission  and  troops  from  Philip,  entered 
and  ravaged  Attica.  The  Athenians,  in  conjunction  with 
Attalus  and  the  Rhodians,  declared  war  against  Philip,  and 
sent  to  Rome  and  Egypt  to  implore  aid. 

In  the  autumn,  (01.  145,  1,)  the  consul  Sulpicius  crossed 
the  sea,  and  took  up  his  winter  quarters  at  Apollonia.  A 
part  of  the  fleet  was  sent  off  to  the  relief  of  Athens,  and 
soon  after  their  arrival  the  Romans  surprised  the  strong 
town  of  Chalcis  in  Euboea ;  but  as  they  were  not  able  to 
defend  both  it  and  Athens,  they  plundered  and  destroyed  it. 
Philip,  who  was  at  Demetrias,*  hastened  with  five  thousand 
foot  and  three  hundred  horse  to  Chalcis ;  but  finding  the 
Romans  gone,  he  resolved  to  make  an  attempt  to  surprise 
Athens.  He  arrived  there  before  day ;  but  the  number  of 
lights  in  the  city  told  him  that  his  project  was  discovered. 
He  halted  at  the  Academy ;  the  Athenians  came  out  to 
engage  him  :  he  routed  and  drove  them  back  into  the  town  ; 
then,  encamping  at  the  Cynosarges,  he  destroyed  it  and  the 
Lyceion,  and  all  the  monuments  and  buildings  round  Athens. 

Next  day  the  troops  of  Attalus  came  from  ^Egina  and 
the  Romans  from  the  Piraeeus  to  the  defence  of  the  town. 
Philip  drew  off  his  forces  and  went  to  Eleusis,  and  thence 
to  Argos,  where  the  Achaean  synod  was  met  to  consult  on 
the  best  mocW  of  repressing  the  outrages  and  excesses  of 
Nabis.  He  offered  to  undertake  the  war  against  him,  pro- 
vided the  Achoeans  would  send  their  troops  to  garrison 
Oreiis,  Chalcis,   and    Corinth.     The   Achasans,    suspecting 


*  This  was  a  town  built  by  Demetrius  Poliorcetes  on  the  Bay  of  Pa- 
gasce.  Demetrias,  "Chalcis  in  Euboea,  and  Corinth  were  the  three 
strongest  places  in  Greece. 


472  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

that  his  design  was  to  get  hostages  in  his  hands  so  as  to 
compel  them  to  join  in  the  war  against  the  Romans,  de- 
clined the  offer,  and  he  returned  to  Attica,  where  he  met 
his  general  Philocles,  who  had  failed  in  an  attempt  on  the 
castle  of  Eleusis.  The  king  renewed  the  attack,  but  the 
Romans  came  by  sea  from  the  Piraseus,  and  relieved  it.  He 
then  advanced  to  Athens,  and  directing  Philocles  to  attack 
the  town,  he  himself  assailed  the  Piraeeus ;  but  he  could 
effect  nothing  against  it,  and  he  retired  to  Bceotia,  ravaging 
the  country  and  destroying  the  temples  on  his  way. 

The  Romans  had  meantime  made  an  incursion  into  a  part 
of  Macedonia,  and  the  consul  had,  in  the  usual  Roman 
manner,  taken  most  of  the  petty  princes  round  it  into  alli- 
ance. When  the  Panaetolion  met  at  Naupactus,  Macedo- 
nian, Roman,  and  Athenian  deputies  appeared  and  addressed 
it.  The  ^Etolians  replied  that  the  subject  was  of  too  much 
importance  to  be  decided  on  suddenly.  Their  real  object 
was  to  watch  the  course  of  events,  for  when  Philip,  a  little 
time  after,  was  worsted  in  a  cavalry  action  by  the  Romans 
at  Octolophon,  they  declared  at  once  against  him  and  in- 
vaded Thessaly.  But  Philip  fell  on  them  as  they  were 
plundering,  and  routed  them,  and  their  strength  was  greatly 
diminished  soon  after  by  Scopas,  who  came  with  money 
from  Egypt,  and  hired  six  thousand  of  their  youth  for  the 
service  of  King  Ptolemreus.  The  fleets  of  the  Romans  and 
Attains  were  at  this  time  triumphant  in  the  iEgean ;  they 
plundered  Andros  and  the  peninsula  of  Pallene,  and  took 
Oreos  in  Eubosa. 

The  next  year,  (Ol.  145,  2,)  P.  Villius  came  out  as  suc- 
cessor to  Sulpicius.  It  was  late  in  the  year  wJren  he  arrived, 
and  he  had  to  quell  a  mutiny  in  the  camp  as  his  first  task, 
so  that  before  he  could  commence  operations  against  the 
enemy,  T.  Quinctius  Flamininus  appeared  to  supersede  him. 
(Ol.  145,  3.) 

King  Philip  now  occupied  with  his  army  a  strong  position 
in  Chaonia,  where  the  River  Aous  runs  in  a  narrow  glen, 
(like  Tempe,)  between  two  mountains,  named  iEropus  and 


WAR    BETWEEN    PHILIP    AND    THE    ROMANS.  473 

Asnaiis.  This  position  he  had  also  secured  by  ditches  and 
ramparts,  and  Flamininus,  though  young  and  full  of  ardor, 
feared  to  attempt  to  force  it. 

During  forty  days  the  two  armies  stood  opposite  each 
other.  A  conference  to  treat  of  peace  was  then  held,  but 
ineffectually,  by  the  king  and  consul.  The  next  day  was 
passed  by  the  troops  in  active  skirmishing.  A  herdsman, 
sent  by  Charops,  an  Epirote  prince,  was  now  brought  before 
the  consul,  who  proffered  to  lead  the  Roman  troops  by  a 
secret  path  to  the  top  of  the  mountain,  over  the  heads  of 
the  Macedonians.  A  body  of  four  thousand  men  were  sent 
with  him ;  and  on  the  third  day,  when  a  column  of  smoke, 
the  appointed  signal,  told  that  they  were  on  the  summit,  the 
consul  led  out  his  forces  and  attacked  the  Macedonians. 
The  royal  troops  were  driven  back  to  their  defences;  the 
Romans,  descending  the  mountain,  fell  on  them  in  the  rear : 
and  they  fled  in  all  directions,  owing  their  safety  to  the 
ruggedness  of  the  ground.  The  Roman  legions  soon  spread 
over  Thessaly,  Euboea  was  conquered,  and  the  same  fate  be- 
fell Phocis,  Elateia  alone  offering  resistance. 

The  present  strategus  of  the  Achaeans,  Aristsenus,  being 
inclined  to  the  Romans,  the  combined  fleet  of  the  Romans, 
Attalus,  and  the  Rhodians  was  at  Cenchrese,  preparing  to  be- 
siege Corinth  ;  and  it  was  hoped  that  by  offering  to  reunite 
that  town  to  the  League,  the  Achaeans  might  be  induced  to 
renounce  the  alliance  with  Philip.  Envoys  were  sent  to  the 
synod,  which  was  now  sitting  at  Sicyon.  Aristaenus  exerted 
all  his  eloquence  in  their  behalf;  still  the  feeling  in  favor 
of  Philip  was  so  strong  that  but  five  of  the  ten  deputies 
could  be  brought  to  vote  for  Rome.  At  length  Memnon, 
the  deputy  of  Fellene,  menaced  with  death  by  his  own 
father,  went  over  to  that  side ;  the  Dymaeans,  Megalopoli- 
tans,  and  a  part  of  the  Argives  quitted  the  assembly,  and 
Philip's  cause  was  lost.  The  troops  of  the  League  joined 
in  the  siege  of  Corinth,  which  was  gallantly  defended,  and 
as  Philocles  was  preparing  to  relieve  it,  the  siege  was 
abandoned,  by  the  advice  of  Attalus.  Philocles  proceeded 
40  *  h h  H 


474  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

to   Argos,    of  which   Philip's   friends   put   him   in   posses- 
sion. 

The  next  year  (Ol.  145,  4)  new  consuls  were  elected  at 
Rome ;  but,  by  the  influence  of  his  friends,  Flamininus  was 
continued  in  his  command,  and  a  reenforcement,  under  his 
predecessors  Sulpicius  and  Villius,  sent  out  to  him.  He  had 
during  the  winter  entered  into  negotiations  for  peace  with 
Philip;  but  peace  was  not  his  object,  and  though  the  king 
was  permitted  to  send  ambassadors  to  Rome,  peace,  he 
found,  was  not  to  be  had  from  the  haughty  republic. 

Philip,  seeing  that  the  contest  was  to  be  for  his  political 
existence,  resolved  to  strain  every  nerve.  In  Greece  the 
Acarnanians  alone  remained  faithful  to  him.  Nabis,  the 
vile  tyrant  of  Sparta,  to  whom  he  had  given  Argos  in 
trust,  broke  faith  without  delay;  he  robbed  the  wealthy 
of  their  property,  promised  the  poor  abolition  of  debts  and 
a  division  of  lands,*  and  ended  by  joining  Flamininus 
against  Philip. 

By  calling  out  the  whole  force  of  his  exhausted  kingdom, 
Philip  assembled  an  army  of  16,000  phalangites,  2000  pel- 
tasts,  2000  Thracians  and  Ulyrians,  about  1000  mercenaries, 
and  2000  horse,  and  having  exercised  them  a  sufficient  time 
at  Dion,  advanced  into  Thessaly.  Flamininus,  with  a  force 
of  Romans  and  Greeks  equal  in  number  of  foot,  but  superior 
in  horse,  having  passed  Thermopylae  without  opposition,  came 
and  encamped  near  Pherse.  The  king,  who  was  at  Larissa, 
also  approached  that  town.  After  a  smart  cavalry  action,  in 
which  the  king  had  the  worst,  as  the  country  was  too  thick- 
set with  walls  and  gardens  to  admit  of  a  pitched  battle,  the 
two  armies,  unknown  to  each  other,  mpved  off  towards 
Scotussa.  A  range  of  hills  divided  them,  so  that  they  were 
not  aware  of  their  proximity  till,  on  the  third  day,  the  ad- 
vance-guard of  the  Roman  army,  going  to  occupy  some 
eminences   named  Cynoscephalae,   (dog-heads,)  from   their 

*  Duas  faces  novantibus  res  ad  plcbem  in  optimates  accendendam  is 
the  just  remark  of  Livy.     It  is  true  of  modern  as  of  ancient  times. 


PEACE  BEWEEN  PHILIP  AND  ROME.        475 

form,  encountered  there  a  Macedonian  post.  A  skirmish 
between  these  parties  brought  on  a  general  engagement ; 
and  though  Philip  displayed  his  usual  skill  and  valor,  and 
his  troops  fought  with  heroism,  the  phalanx  was  unable  to 
resist  the  legions  of  Rome.  The  victory  was  complete, 
and  the  might  of  Macedonia  was  broken  forever.  The 
bodies  of  eight  thousand  soldiers  lay  on  the  field ;  five  thou- 
sand were  made  captives.  The  victors,  it  is  stated,  lost  but 
seven  hundred  men.* 

Misfortune  assailed  Philip  on  every  side,  for  at  this  very 
time  the  Achseans  defeated  Androsthenes,  the  Macedonian 
governor  of  Corinth,  with  a  loss  of  1500  slain  and  300 
prisoners.  The  consul's  brother  Lucius  sailed  from  Cor- 
cyra,  and  took  the  town  of  Leucas  in  Acarnania  by  storm ; 
and  the  tidings  of  the  battle  of  Cynoscephalae  were  followed 
by  the  submission  of  the  whole  country. 

Philip,  who  had  fled  into  Macedonia,  sent  deputies  to  the 
consul  at  Larissa,  to  propose  terms  of  peace.  The  ^Etolians, 
insolent  with  success,  insisted  on  his  being  put  to  death  or 
driven  ffom  his  kingdom ;  but  Flamininus,  who  knew  that  a 
war  with  Rome  was  impending  from  Syria,  affected  modera- 
tion. An  interview  was  held  in  the  vale  of  Tempe,  and  a 
truce  made  for  four  months  to  enable  Philip  to  send  ambas- 
sadors to  Rome.  Peace  was  granted  by  the  senate  on  con- 
dition that  all  the  Greek  states  in  Europe  and  Asia  should 
be  free  and  independent,  and  that  Philip  should  withdraw 
his  garrisons  from  them ;  that  he  should  give  up  all  prisoners 
and  deserters,  and  all  his  ships  of  war ;  that  he  should  keep 
no  more  than  fifteen  thousand  men  in  arms,  and  have  no 
elephants,  and  not  make  war  unauthorized  by  the  senate ; 
and  finally,  pay  1000  talents,  half  down,  half  in  the  course 
of  ten  years.  This  peace  gave  satisfaction  to  all  the  Greeks 
except  the  ^Etolians.t 

It  was  now  the  season  of  the  Isthmian  games,  (Ol.  146,  1,) 
and  Flamininus,  who  was  at  Athens,  repaired  to  Corinth  to 
be  present  at  them.     While  all  were  in  anxious  expectation, 

*  Polyb.  xviii.  1—10.  t  Polyb.  xviii.  17—22. 


476  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

the  herald  of  the  games  advanced,  and  when  the  trumpet 
had  given  the  signal  for  silence,  he  proclaimed  aloud,  "  The 
Roman  senate  and  the  general  T.  Quinctius,  having  con- 
quered King  Philip  and  the  Macedonians,  will  that  the 
Corinthians,  Phocians,  all  the  Locrians,  the  Isle  of  Eubcea. 
the  Magnesians,  Thessalians,  Perrhaebians,  and  Phthiotic 
Achaeans  be  free,  untaxed,  and  governed  by  their  own  laws." 
Surprise  and  joy  contended  in  the  minds  of  the  auditors,  who 
could  scarcely  believe  their  ears;  the  herald  was  recalled, 
and  he  repeated  the  proclamation ;  the  games  were  hurried 
over,  as  no  one  gave  any  attention  to  them  ;  all  then  rushed 
to  the  presence  of  the  Roman  general ;  wreaths  and  gar- 
lands were  flung  upon  him,  and  but  that  he  was  in  the  vigor 
of  youth,  (he  was  now  but  thirty-three,)  he  would  have  sunk 
beneath  the  demonstrations  of  their  joy. 

Such  was  the  celebrated  scene  of  the  Romans  giving  lib- 
erty to  Greece.  Alas !  it  was  but  deceptive,  and  Greece 
was  to  be  henceforth  as  completely  a  vassal  as  Etruria  or 
Campania.  It  was  the  fear  of  Antiochus,  and  not  an  emo- 
tion of  generosity,  that  actuated  the  senate,  and  the  debt  of 
gratitude  due  to  Rome  was  slight.  Yet  the  wiser  Greeks 
appear  to  have  seen  that  the  empire  of  the  world  was  re- 
served for  Rome,  and  that  internal  peace  could  only  be 
secured  to  Greece  by  her  supremacy. 


CHAPTER  IX.* 

WAR    AGAINST    NABIS. ANTIOCHUS    THE    GREAT    IN     GREECE. 

WAR     BETWEEN     SPARTA     AND     THE      LEAGUE. DEATH 

OF    PHILOPCEMON. LAST  EFFORTS  OF    THE  GREEKS. DE- 
STRUCTION    OF     CORINTH. REDUCTION     OF    GREECE    TO    A 

PROVINCE. CONCLUSION. 

The  Romans  now  turned  their  thoughts  to  Syria.     Antio- 
chus the  Great  ruled  from  Caucasus  to  the  borders  of  Egypt : 

*  Liv.  xxxiv.  xxxv.  xxxvi.    Plut.,  Flam,  and  Philop. 


WAR    AGAINST    NABIS.  477 

he  had  been  the  ally  of  Philip ;  and  he  now  made  himself 
master  of  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia  and  the  Chersonese,  and 
took  some  towns  from  Ptolemaeus,  the  young  king  of  Egypt. 
Roman  ambassadors  were  sent  to  require  him  to  give  liberty 
to  the  Grecian  towns,  and  to  restore  those  of  the  king  of 
Egypt.  They  met  with  a  haughty  refusal ;  but  the  senate 
did  not  deem  it  prudent  to  go  to  war  yet,  more  especially  as 
they  were  not  quite  sure  of  Greece ;  the  JEtolians  were 
known  to  be  discontented ;  and  Nabis  had  been  faithless  to 
Philip,  and  might  be  so  to  them.  It  was  resolved  to  humble 
the  Spartan  tyrant,  and  orders  were  sent  out  to  Flamininus 
to  act  against  him  as  he  deemed  best  for  the  republic,  —  in 
other  words,  to  make  war  on  him. 

Flamininus,  having  called  a  meeting  of  the  confederates 
at  Corinth,  (01.  146,  2,)  asked  if  it  was  for  the  good  of 
Greece  that  Nabis  should  hold  Argos.  All  but  the  JGtolians 
gave  the  answer  he  wished,  and  war  was  declared  against 
him  if  he  did  not  give  up  Argos  to  the  Achaeans.  The  Ro- 
man army  entered  Peloponnesus,  and  was  joined  by  eleven 
thousand  Achaeans ;  they  advanced  to  Argos,  and  thence  by 
Tegea  and  Sellasia  into  Laconia,  and  encamped  at  Amyclae, 
whence  they  ravaged  the  country  to  the  sea ;  and  Gythion, 
being  attacked  by  sea  and  land,  was  forced  to  surrender. 
The  tyrant  kept  his  troops  close  within  the  walls  of  Sparta : 
the  Greeks  were  eager  to  besiege  and  destroy  him  ;  but 
Flamininus,  who  knew  that  his  successor  was  coming  out, 
and  wished  therefore  to  end  the  war,  opposed  this  measure, 
alleging  the  impending  danger  from  Syria.  They  therefore 
consented  to  offers  of  peace  being  made  to  the  tyrant. 
These,  however,  he  rejected ;  and  the  city  was  attacked  and 
nearly  taken.  Nabis  then  in  terror  sued  for  peace,  which  was 
granted  on  his  giving  up  Argos,  his  ships,  the  Roman  desert- 
ers and  prisoners,  the  families  of  the  exiles,  etc.  etc.  The 
Greeks  murmured,  not  without  reason,  that  the  rightful  king 
Agesipolis,  and  the  noblest  of  the  Spartans,  should  continue 
in  exile,  and  a  ruthless  tyrant  be  suffered  to  remain  in  peace. 
But  Flamininus  had  consulted  the  interests  of  Rome,  and 
not  those  of  Greece. 


478  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

The  following  spring,  (01.  146,  3,)  Flamininus  withdrew, 
according  to  promise,  the  Roman  garrisons  from  Acro- 
Corinth,  Chalcis,  Demetrias,  and  other  towns,  and  led  his 
army  back  to  Rome,  when  the  senate  granted  him  the  well- 
merited  honor  of  a  triumph. 

The  ^Etolians,  regarding  themselves  as  hardly  treated  by 
the  Romans,  were  resolved,  if  possible,  to  rekindle  the 
flames  of  war,  and  they  sent  to  solicit  Antiochus,  Philip,  and 
Nabis.  This  last  was  easily  excited ;  he  murdered  all  op- 
posed to  him  in  the  maritime  towns  of  Laconia,  and  laid 
siege  to  Gythion,  which  Flamininus  had  given  in  charge  to 
the  Achaeans.  Philopoemon,  who  had  returned  from  Crete, 
and  was  now  the  Achaean  strategus,  attempted  to  relieve  it 
by  sea;  but,  as  he  knew  nothing  of  naval  affairs,  his  little 
fleet  was  easily  defeated  by  that  of  the  tyrant.  He  speedily, 
however,  collected  a  land  force,  and  invading  Laconia  gave 
Nabis  a  complete  defeat  near  Sparta.  The  tyrant  was  ur- 
gent with  the  ^Etolians  to  send  him  aid  ;  and  as  they  were 
now  resolved  on  war  with  Rome,  and  were  regardless  of  faith, 
they  sent  a  thousand  men  ostensively  to  his  support.  But 
as  they  had  already  by  treachery  gained  Demetrias,  and  med- 
itated seizing  all  the  strong  places  of  Greece,  the  command- 
er of  these  troops  was  directed  to  kill  the  tyrant  and  seize 
on  Sparta.  He  accordingly  slew  Nabis  openly  at  a  review, 
in  the  presence  of  his  troops,  and  then  hastened  and  plun- 
dered his  palace.  The  iEtolians  began  to  pillage  the  town  ; 
but  the  people  rose  and  slaughtered  them,  and  Philopoemon, 
coming  to  Sparta,  induced  the  Spartans  to  join  the  Achaean 
league.  The  vile  treachery  of  the  iEtolians  thus  met  its 
due  reward. 

The  intelligence  of  the  occupation  of  Demetrias  by  the 
^Etolians  decided  King  Antiochus  to  pass  over  at  once  to 
Greece.  Towards  the  end  of  the  year,  he  sailed  from  Troas, 
with  10,000  foot,  500  horse,  and  six  elephants,  and  landed 
at  Pteleon  in  Magnesia.  He  met  the  iEtolian  chiefs  at 
Lamia,  and  apologized  for  the  smallness  of  his  force,  assur- 
ing them  that  in  the  spring  he  would  fill  all  Greece  with 
men  and  arms,   and  cover  the  coast  with  ships.     He  was 


ANTIOCHUS    THE    GREAT    IN    GREECE.  479 

heard  with  applause,  and  the  chief  command  of  the  war  was 
conferred  on  him. 

An  attempt  to  gain  Chalcis,  before  which  Antiochus  ap- 
peared in  person,  having  failed,  envoys  were  sent  to  the 
king  of  the  Athamanes  and  to  the  Achaeans  to  persuade 
them,  to  abandon  the  alliance  of  the  Romans.  T.  Quinctius, 
who  was  at  ^Egion  when  the  envoys  arrived  there,  replied 
so  satisfactorily  to  them  that  the  League  at  once  declared 
war  against  Antiochus  and  the  iEtoJians.  Some  troops  were 
sent  to  the  defence  of  Athens  and  Chalcis ;  but  this  last 
opened  its  gates  when  Antiochus  appeared  with  his  army 
before  it,  and  all  Eubcea  speedily  submitted. 

During  the  winter,  Antiochus  received  embassies  from 
Elis  and  Epeirus,  and  he  went  himself  to  Thebes  and  ob- 
tained a  decree  of  amity  from  the  assembly  of  the  Boeotians. 
He  then  proceeded  to  Demetrias,  where  a  council  was  held 
relative  to  Thessaly.  Hannibal,  the  great  Carthaginian,  who 
was  with  the  king,  but,  owing  to  the  jealousy  of  Thoas  the 
iEtolian,  without  a  command,  advised  above  all  things  to 
try  to  gain  over  King  Philip,  or,  if  that  did  not  succeed,  to 
send  orders  to  Seleucus,  the  king's  son,  to  cross  with  his 
army  into  Thrace  and  attack  Macedonia.  He  reiterated  the 
opinion  he  had  always  expressed,  that  the  only  way  to  reduce 
Rome  was  to  invade  Italy.  This  advice  was  applauded,  but 
not  followed.  Antiochus  reduced  several  towns  in  Thessaly, 
and  then  returned  to  Chalcis  to  celebrate  his  nuptials  with 
a  beautiful  maiden  of  that  place,  and  the  winter  was  spent 
in  luxury  by  himself  and  his  troops. 

In  the  spring,  (Ol.  147,  2,)  Antiochus  assembled  his  ar- 
my and  entered  ^Etolia.  Treachery  enabled  him  to  gain 
over  a  part  of  the  Acarnanians.  He  then  returned  to  Chal- 
cis, where  tidings  soon  reached  him  that  the  praetor  Baebius, 
joined  by  King  Philip,  was  victorious  in  Thessaly,  and  that 
the  consul  M.  Acilius  Glabrio  had  landed  with  10,000  foot, 
2000  horse,  and  15  elephants,  and  was  on  his  way  to  join 
them.  Antiochus,  finding  how  he  had  been  deceived  by 
Thoas  and  the  yEtolians,  now  regretted  that  he  had  not  let 


480  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

himself  be  guided  by  the  counsels  of  Hannibal.  He  resolved, 
however,  to  make  the  best  of  matters,  and  having  sent  to 
summon  the  ^Etolians  to  his  aid,  advanced  to  occupy  the 
pass  of  Thermopylae,  which  he  secured  with  a  wall  and  a 
double  ditch  and  rampart.  The  ^Etolian  chiefs  could  get 
but  four  thousand  men  to  take  arms,  one  half  of  whom,  at 
the  desire  of  the  king,  occupied  the  heights  of  the  mountain 
to  prevent  the  passage  of  any  Roman  troops. 

The  consul,  on  coming  to  the  pass,  sent  the  legates  M. 
Porcius  Cato  and  L.  Valerius  Flaccus,  with  two  thousand 
men,  to  dislodge  the  ^Etolians.  At  daylight  next  day  he  led 
his  forces  to  the  attack  of  the  enemy.  Antiochus  drew  up 
his  phalanx  with  the  light  troops  on  the  left,  and  the  ele- 
phants and  horse  on  the  right,  and  all  the  attacks  of  the 
Romans  were  repelled,  till  Cato,  having  dislodged  the  iEto- 
lians,  appeared  on  a  hill  over  the  royal  army.  When  they 
found  that  these  were  Romans,  and  not  ./Etolians,  as  they  had 
at  first  thought,  they  lost  all  courage  and  fled ;  the  Romans 
pursued  them,  after  plundering  the  camp,  as  far  as  Scarphia, 
and  of  the  whole  army  not  more  than  five  hundred  men  re- 
turned to  Asia.  Antiochus  fled  without  stopping  to  Elateia, 
whence  he  hastened  to  Chalcis,  and  getting  aboard  a  ship 
passed  over  to  Ephesus. 

Chalcis  and  the  towns  of  Bceotia  opened  their  gates  to 
the  Romans,  and  Heracleia,  which  the  ^Etolians  held,  was 
taken  by  assault.  Terms  of  peace  (hard  ones  of  course) 
were  offered  to  the  ^Etolians ;  and  on  their  hesitating  to  ac- 
cept of  them,  the  consul  advanced  and  laid  siege  to  Naupac- 
tus.  After  a  siege  of  two  months,  by  the  mediation  of  Fla- 
mininus,  the  consul  granted  them  a  truce,  in  order  that  they 
might  send  envoys  to  Rome  to  solicit  a  peace.     (Ol.  147,  3.) 

During  the  war  in  Asia  between  the  Romans  and  Anti- 
ochus, little  occurred  in  Greece  to  attract  notice.  At  length, 
(Ol.  148,  1,)  in  the  strategy  of  Philopoemon,  the  peace  of 
Peloponnesus  was  disturbed  by  the  Spartans.  For  the  exiles 
having  settled  in  the  towns  on  the  coast  of  Laconia,  which 
Flamininus  had  given  in   charge  to  the  Achaeans,  and  cut 


WAR    BETWEEN     SPARTA    AND    THE    LEAGUE.         481 

them  off  from  all  communication  with  the  sea,  the  Spar- 
tans resolved  to  right  themselves,  as  of  old,  by  the  sword  ; 
and  they  fell  on  by  night  and  took  the  town  of  Las,  to  the 
south  of  Gythion;  but  when  the  day  came,  the  people  rose 
and  drove  them  out.  Envoys  were  sent  to  the  Achaeans  to 
complain  of  the  Spartans;  and  on  the  motion  of  Philopoemon 
a  decree  was  passed  requiring  them  to  give  up  the  authors 
of  this  outrage,  or  be  treated  as  violators  of  treaty.  The 
Spartans,  in  their  rage,  when  these  terms  were  proposed  to 
them,  murdered  thirty  of  those  persons  who  were  favorable 
to  the  Achaeans  and  the  exiles,  and  then,  renouncing  the 
League,  sent  to  the  consul  Fulvius,  who  was  at  Cephal- 
lenia,  inviting  him  to  come  and  receive  their  city  into  sub- 
jection to  Rome. 

War  was  declared  by  the  League ;  but  as  it  was  now  win- 
ter, no  operations  of  magnitude  could  be  undertaken,  and 
at  the  desire  of  the  consul,  who  came  to  Elis,  both  parties 
sent  embassies  to  Rome.  The  answer  given  by  the  senate 
was  ambiguous ;  for  they  respected  the  Achaeans,  and  did 
not  wish  any  change  to  be  made  in  Lacedaemon. 

The  next  year,  (Ol.  148,  2,)  Philopoemon,  being  reelected 
strategus,  assembled  an  army,  and  entering  Laconia,  he  re- 
quired the  authors  of  the  revolt  to  be  given  up.  Fear  causing 
a  general  silence,  the  persons  demanded  offered  to  go  if  the 
deputies  pledged  their  faith  that  no  violence  should  be  of- 
fered them  till  they  had  pleaded  their  cause.  The  security 
was  given,  and  they  went  attended  by  their  friends,  in  all 
eighty  in  number.  But  the  exiles  met  them  at  the  gate  of 
the  camp,  and  began  to  revile  them ;  many  of  the  Achaeans 
joined  the  exiles ;  a  tumult  arose  ;  and  in  spite  of  the  efforts 
of  Philopoemon,  seventeen  of  them  were  stoned  on  the  spot. 
The  remaining  sixty-three  were  confined ;  and  next  day  they 
were  brought  before  the  multitude,  by  whom  they  were  con- 
demned, without  listening  to  their  defence,  and  then  led  to 
death. 

After  this  act,  which  disgraces  his  memory,  Philopoemon 
ordered  the  Lacedaemonians  to  demolish  their  walls,  dismiss 
41  m 


482  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

their  mercenaries,  give  up  the  slaves  whom  the  tyrants  had 
freed,  abolish  the  laws  and  institutions  of  Lycurgus,  and 
adopt  those  of  the  Achaeans.  This  last  condition  was  the 
hardest;  but  Philopoemon  saw  that  his  plan  of  uniting  the 
Peloponnesus  in  one  body  could  never  be  accomplished 
while  the  Spartans  were  separated  by  their  institutions  from 
all  the  other  Greeks.  The  Spartans  on  complying  with 
these  terms  were  readmitted  into  the  League. 

Greece  now  remained  tranquil  during  four  years :  the 
Messenians  (Ol.  149,  2)  first  disturbed  the  repose.  Dei- 
nocrates,  their  strategus,  was  a  personal  enemy  to  Philo- 
poemon, now  strategus  of  the  Achaeans  for  the  eighth  time, 
and  he  persuaded  the  Messenians  to  separate  from  the 
League.  News  came  to  Argos  to  Philopoemon,  who  was 
there  ill  of  a  fever,  that  the  Messenians  were  about  to  com- 
mence hostilities.  He  rose  from  his  sick  bed,  and  though 
now  seventy  years  of  age,  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  to 
Megalopolis  (400  stadia)  in  one  day.  Having  assembled 
a  body  of  horse  of  the  principal  youth  of  the  place,  he 
entered  Messene:  the  troops  of  Deinocrates  were  routed; 
but  being  reenforced,  they  rallied,  and  Philopoemon  found 
it  necessary  to  retreat  over  some  uneven  ground.  In  his 
anxiety  for  his  gallant  young  cavalry,  he  kept  in  the  rear, 
frequently  facing  round  against  the  enemy.  He  thus  came 
to  be  separated  from  his  friends,  and  his  horse  happening 
to  throw  him,  he  was  made  a  prisoner. 

When  Philopoemon  was  led  to  Messene,  the  people  flocked 
to  behold  him.  But  as  pity  and  respect  were  the  feelings 
most  manifested,  Deinocrates  and  his  friends  had  him  hurried 
away  to  a  subterraneous  prison  named  the  Treasury,  the 
mouth  of  which  was  closed  with  a  large  stone  moved  by  an 
engine.  Deinocrates,  fearing  if  he  delayed  that  Philopoemon 
would  recover  his  liberty  and  exact  vengeance,  assembled 
a  secret  council  of  his  own  friends,  and  by  their  votes  sen- 
tenced him  to  death.  At  nightfall  a  servant  entered  the 
prison  with  a  cup  of  poison  ;  Philopoemon,  who  was  lying 
wrapped  in  his  cloak,  raised   himself,  and    taking  the  cup, 


DEATH    OF    PHILOPffiMON.  483 

asked  if  Lycortas  and  his  cavalry  had  escaped.  The  servant 
replying  in  the  affirmative,  "  'Tis  well,"  said  he,  and 
drinking  the  contents  of  the  cup,  shortly  after  expired. 

The  joy  of  Deinocrates  and  his  friends  was  short-lived. 
The  troops  of  the  League,  led  by  Lycortas,  invaded  Messene  ; 
resistance  was  vain ;  the  city  of  Messene  was  forced  to  open 
its  gates.  Deinocrates  eluded  their  vengeance  by  a  volun- 
tary death  :  those  who  had  voted  for  the  death  of  Philopoemon 
followed  his  example ;  those  who  had  voted  for  the  torture 
were  surrendered  to  Lycortas. 

The  remains  of  Philopoemon  were  burnt,  and  put  in  an 
urn,  to  be  conveyed  in  solemn  procession  to  his  native  town. 
The  foot,  followed  by  the  Messenian  prisoners,  led  the 
march.  Polybius,  the  future  historian,  the  son  of  Lycortas, 
and  the  principal  Achaeans  followed,  bearing  the  urn  covered 
with  ribbons  and  garlands ;  the  cavalry  closed  the  proces- 
sion. The  people  of  all  the  towns  and  villages  on  the  way 
came  forth  to  testify  their  grief  and  respect,  and  touch  the 
hero's  urn.  At  the  tomb  the  Messenian  prisoners  were 
stoned  to  death,  to  appease  the  manes  of  Philopoemon. 
Statues  of  him  were  set  up,  and  public  honors  decreed  to 
his  memory  in  most  of  the  towns  of  Greece. 

After  the  death  of  Philopoemon,  Greece  declined  daily.  In 
every  town  the  friends  of  independence  were  outweighed  by 
the  tools  and  sycophants  of  Rome.  Lycortas  and  other  men 
of  noble  mind  vainly  strove  against  Hyperbolus,  Callicrates, 
and  men  of  a  similar  character.  At  length  his  evil  destiny 
engaged  Perseus,  the  unworthy  successor  of  Philip,  in  a 
conflict  with  the  Romans  :  the  battle  of  Pydna  (Ol.  153,  1) 
put  an  end  to  the  independence  of  Macedonia,  and  Perseus 
expired  a  captive  at  Rome.  Roman  commissioners  came  to 
inquire  into  the  state  of  Greece ;  and  at  the  instigation  of 
Callicrates,  they  required  of  the  assembly  of  the  Achaeans  to 
pass  sentence  of  death  on  those  who  had  aided  Perseus  with 
money  or  otherwise,  reserving  to  themselves  the  power  of 
afterwards  naming  the  persons  who  should  be  obnoxious  to 
the  sentence.     Such   an  unheard-of  proposal    was  rejected 


484  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

with  horror  and  disdain.  The  Romans  then  asserted  that 
all  the  Achaean  leaders  had  been  guilty.  Xeno,  who  had 
been  strategus,  denied  the  charge  on  the  part  of  his  friends 
and  himself,  and  declared  that  they  were  ready  to  justify 
themselves  there  or  at  Rome.  His  offer  was  eagerly  caught 
at,  and  upwards  of  a  thousand  of  the  principal  Achaeans, 
among  whom  was  the  historian  Polybius,  were  carried  off 
to  Rome,  (Ol.  153,  2,)  where  they  were  treated  as  con- 
demned instead  of  accused  persons,  and  distributed  for  cus- 
tody in  the  towns  of  Etruria.  Such  of  them  as  attempted 
escape  were  put  to  death.  Embassies  were  sent  in  vain  pray- 
ing for  their  liberation :  it  was  not  till  sixteen  years  after- 
wards, (Ol.  157,  2,)  that  three  hundred  of  them  (all  that 
were  alive)  were  allowed  to  return  to  their  enslaved 
country.* 

During  the  twenty  years  (01.  153 — 158)  of  apparent 
independence  which  remained  to  Greece,  nothing  occurs  of 
much  interest.  The  Lacedaemonians  attempted  to  separate 
from  the  League ;  Rome  was  appealed  to ;  an  embassy, 
headed  by  Aurelius  Orestes,  came  (01.  158,  1 )  and  sum- 
moned a  congress  to  Corinth.  Orestes  declared  the  will  of 
the  senate,  that  Sparta,  Argos,  Corinth,  the  Arcadian  Or- 
chomenus,  and  the  CEtean  Heracleia  should  be  separated 
from  the  League.  The  strategus  Diaeus  of  Megalopolis, 
and  the  other  heads  of  the  League  would  hear  no  more  ; 
they  rushed  out  of  the  house,  called  an  assembly  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  seized  all  the  Lacedaemonians  at  Corinth.  Depu- 
ties were  sent  to  Rome,  who  met  Roman  envoys  coming  to 
Greece,  with  whom  they  returned. 

Critolaus,  the  strategus  of  the  following  year,  (Ol.  158,  2,) 
was  possessed  by  an  insane  desire  of  war  with  Rome  ;  t  and 
when  Sextus  Julius  Caesar,  the  head  of  the  Roman  embassy, 
summoned  a  congress  to  Tegea,  he  sent  secret  instructions 
to  the  members  not  to  appear  ;  then,  pretending  that  he  could 

*  Paus.  vii.  10. 
t  Both  he  and  Diseus  had  been  among  the  one  thousand  hostages. 


LAST    EFFORTS    OF    THE    GREEKS.  485 

do  nothing  without  them,  required  the  Romans  to  wait  for 
another  synod  six  months  thence.  The  Romans  went  home ; 
and  Critolaus,  having  visited  all  the  places  of  the  League 
to  excite  hatred  and  animosity  against  them,  convened  an 
assembly  to  Corinth.  To  this  assembly  came  envoys,  sent  by 
Metellus,  the  governor  of  Macedonia ;  but  the  mob,  of  which 
it  was  chiefly  composed,  would  not  listen  to  them,  and  drove 
them  away  with  insult  and  derision.  Critolaus  proposed  to 
make  war  on  Sparta,  in  reality  on  the  Romans;  and  added, 
to  gain  the  common  people,  that  till  peace  was  restored,  all 
social  distinctions  should  cease ;  debtors  be  free  from  their 
engagements ;  and  every  Achaean  be  lord  of  any  place  he 
might  take  during  the  war.  War  was  at  once  resolved  on, 
and  Pytheas,  the  Boeotarch,  induced  the  Thebans,  whom 
Metellus  had  fined  for  acts  of  aggression  on  their  neigh- 
bors, to  take  a  share  in  it.  The  senate,  when  they  heard  of 
these  proceedings,  declared  war  against  the  Achaean  League, 
and  committed  the  conduct  of  it  to  the  newly-elected  consul 
L.  Mummius. 

Metellus,  anxious  to  compose  the  affairs  of  Greece  before 
Mummius  should  come  out,  entered  Thessaly  with  his 
army ;  he  at  the  same  time  sent  deputies  offering  forgive- 
ness of  all  that  was  past,  but  to  no  purpose.  Critolaus  was 
besieging  Heracleia  when  he  heard  that  Metellus  had  passed 
the  Spercheius.  Instead  of  attempting  to  defend  the  pass, 
he  fled  in  terror  into  Locris  ;  and  Metellus,  coming  up  with 
the  Achseans  near  the  town  of  Scarpheia,  gave  them  a  total 
defeat.  Critolaus  disappeared  in  the  action,  most  probably 
drowned  in  the  neighboring  morass.  At  Chaeroneia,  Me- 
tellus met  and  cut  to  pieces  a  body  of  one  thousand  Arca- 
dians ;  he  found  Thebes  deserted,  and  pardoned  the  peo- 
ple on  Pytheas  being  given  up  :  he  then  advanced  to  the 
Isthmus. 

On  the  death  of  Critolaus,  Diaeus,  the  strategus  of  the 

preceding  year,  took  of  right  the  vacant  office.     He  wrote 

from  Argos  „to  the  people  of  all  the  towns,  to  give  freedom 

and  arms  to  their  household  slaves  to  the  number  of  twelve 

41* 


486  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 

thousand,  and  to  send  them  to  Corinth,  whither  he  also 
summoned  all  the  fighting  men  of  the  League.  He  forced 
all  the  wealthy,  both  men  and  women,  to  contribute  money 
towards  the  war.  He  was  thus  enabled  to  assemble  a  force 
of  fourteen  thousand  hoplites  and  six  hundred  horse,  with 
which  he  took  his  post  near  Corinth,  while  four  thousand 
men,  the  wreck  of  Critolaus'  army,  had  the  charge  of  defend- 
ing Megara.  These,  however,  fell  back  on  the  approach 
of  Metellus.  Peace  again  was  vainly  offered :  Mummius 
arrived  with  twenty-three  thousand  foot,  and  three  thou- 
sand five  hundred  horse,  and  Metellus  returned  to  his 
province. 

A  division  of  the  Italian  allies  was  placed  as  an  advance- 
post  twelve  stadia  from  the  Roman  camp.  The  Achaeans, 
observing  their  haughty  negligence,  fell  on  them,  and  drove 
them  back  with  the  loss  of  five  hundred  men.  Imboldened 
by  this  success,  Diaeus  offered  the  Romans  battle  in  the 
vale  of  Leucopetrae ;  the  women  and  children,  we  are  told,* 
stood  on  the  heights  to  view  the  defeat  of  the  Romans  ; 
wagons  were  at  hand  to  carry  off  the  booty.  But  the 
Achaean  horse  fled  at  the  first  shock  :  the  foot  fought  with 
the  valor  inspired  by  despair,  but  were  overborne  by  num- 
bers. Diseus,  when  he  saw  all  lost,  sped  away  to  Mega- 
lopolis, told  of  the  defeat,  put  his  wife  to  death  with  his 
own  hand  to  save  her  from  disgrace  and  slavery,  and  then 
terminated  his  life  with  poison. 

During  the  night  after  the  battle,  most  of  the  men  fled 
from  Corinth.  Mummius,  fearing  an  ambush,  did  not  ven- 
ture to  enter  the  town  till  the  third  day.  He  put  to  death 
all  the  men  whom  he  found  in  it,  sold  the  women  and  chil- 
dren, carried  away  most  of  the  works  of  art,  and  then  set 
fire  to  the  city,  whose  flames  ascended  to  heaven  as  those 
of  the  funeral  pyre  of  Grecian  independence.     (Ol.  158,  3.) 

Ten  commissioners  came  from  Rome  to  aid  the  consul  in 

*  Justin,  xxxiv.  This  circumstance  is  improbable  in  itself,  and  is 
at  variance  with  the  state  of  dejection  which,  according  to  Polybius, 
the  Greeks  were  in. 


REDUCTION    OF    GREECE    TO    A    PROVINCE.  487 

regulating  the  affairs  of  Greece.  The  walls  of  all  the  towns 
which  had  taken  part  in  the  war  were  thrown  down,  the 
democracies  every  where  dissolved,  and  the  direction  of  af- 
fairs committed  to  the  wealthy  citizens ;  no  one  could  ac- 
quire landed  property  out  of  his  own  community ;  all  na- 
tional synods  and  assemblies  were  suppressed ;  and  an 
annual  tribute  was  imposed  on  Greece,  which,  under  the 
name  of  Achaia,  was  governed  by  a  Roman  proconsul.* 

A  shadow  of  independence  remained  to  Athens,  Crete, 
and  Rhodes.  But  sixty  years  afterwards,  (Ol.  173,  3,)  the 
lower  classes  of  the  people  at  Athens  were  induced  to  de- 
clare for  Mithridates  in  his  war  against  the  Romans :  the 
men  of  property  fled  from  the  devoted  town,  and  the  ruth- 
less Sulla  massacred  the  inhabitants  without  mercy.  Crete 
remained  as  contemptible  as  ever,  through  internal  discord 
and  mercenary  service.  After  a  resistance  of  more  than  two 
years  to  the  Roman  arms  during  the  Mithridatic  war,  it  was 
conquered  and  reduced  to  the  form  of  a  province.  (Ol.  178, 2.) 
Rhodes,  under  its  excellent  and  prudent  aristocracy,  con- 
tinued independent  and  respected  till  the  time  of  the  Roman 
empire. 

During  this  last  period  of  Grecian  history,  the  adven- 
turous, the  needy,  and  the  ingenious  found  ample  employment 
in  the  civil  and  military  service  of  the  kings  of  Egypt,  Syria, 
and  the  other  fragments  of  Alexander's  mighty  empire. 
The  philosophers  and  men  of  letters  met  a  welcome  recep- 
tion at  the  courts  of  Egypt  and  Pergamus,  whose  kings  had 
collected  immense  libraries ;  but  the  fire  of  Grecian  genius 
was  extinct,  and  criticism  and  compilation  were  now  the 
chief  occupation  of  those  who  aspired  to  literary  eminence. 
In  this  period,  however,  the  physical,  mechanical,  and  math- 
ematical sciences  made  rapid  progress,  and  the  names  of 
Eratosthenes,  Hipparchus,  and  Archimedes  will  ever  remain 
in  honor. 


*  Plut.,  Sulla,  14.    Appian,  Mithridat.  38.     Pausanias  (i.  20.)  says 
he  decimated  them. 


488  HISTORY    OF    GREECE. 


Thus  have  we  ventured,  in  narrow  limits,  to  trace  the 
history  of  Greece,  from  the  time  of  its  emergence  from  the 
mists  of  mythology,  to  that  of  its  absorption  in  the  wide 
ocean  of  Roman  story.  Greece  had  performed  the  part 
assigned  her  by  the  Ruler  of  the  Universe  :  she  had  checked 
the  westward  progress  of  Asiatic  dominion ;  she  had  devel- 
oped nearly  every  form  of  political  existence ;  she  had  given 
the  world  perfect  models  in  every  species  of  literature  and 
art;  she  had  displayed  the  evils  of  civil  discord  and  ab- 
sence of  political  unity.  Two  thousand  years  have  flown 
since  the  scene  closed  on  independent  Greece,  during  which 
period,  crouching  beneath  the  despotism  of  the  Roman,  the 
Byzantine  and  the  Turkish  empire,  she  has  been  as  nought 
among  the  nations.  At  length,  in  our  own  days,  we  have 
beheld  her  reappearance  on  the  political  stage,  and  the 
question  naturally  arises,  What  will  be  her  future  destiny  1 
Is  she  to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  concord  and  union  among 
the  various  portions  of  her  population  ?  Is  she  to  emulate 
ancient  Hellas  in  arts,  in  arms,  and  in  literature?  Is  she 
to  escape  the  influence  of  the  chill,  withering  air  of  northern 
despotism  ?  These  are  questions  we  venture  not  to  answer  : 
we  hope  the  best,  but  our  hopes  are  not  sanguine ;  for  in- 
stances of  national  rejuvenescence  are  rare  in  the  annals 
of  the  world. 


CHRONOLOGICAL    TABLE 


CONTEMPORARY    HISTORY. 


Note.  —  It  would  be  impossible  to  present  the  reader,  in  this 
table,  with  a  complete  view  of  the  contemporary  history  of  all 
nations.  The  fulfilment  of  that  design,  though  highly  useful, 
would  of  itself  occupy  a  volume.  The  reader  may  be  referred 
to  a  work  in  which  it  has  been  carried  out,  through  the  whole 
range  of  ancient  history,  entitled,  "  Comparative  View  of  An- 
cient History,  and  Explanation  of  Chronological  Eras,"  by  the 
editor  of  this  volume.  What  can  be  here  done  will  be  merely 
to  present  a  view  of  the  principal  events  which  transpired  in 
the  most  renowned  among  the  nations  of  antiquity,  at  about  the 
same  time  that  the  most  marked  events  took  place  in  the  history 
of  Greece.  The  details  may  be  filled  up  by  reference  to  the 
work  already  mentioned.  It  is  most  important,  in  the  study  of 
individual  histories,  that  a  knowledge  should  be  constantly  pres- 
ent of  the  contemporary  events  transpiring  in  other  nations, 
or  members  of  the  great  human  family.     . 


Olym- 
piads. 

Years 
B.C. 

Events  of  Greece. 

Events  of  Rome. 

Events  of  other  Nations. 

1104 
1132 

1000  j 

884 

776  j 

775 
753 
743) 
to  [ 
724) 

Dorian  migration. 

Judges  among  Jews. 
Shepherd  kings  expelled 

i 

Supposed  age  of  ) 
Homer  &  Hesiod.  ] 
Lycurgus  in  Sparta. 
Olympiads     first 
reckoned. 

I 
j 

from  Egypt. 
Solomon.  —  Sesostris  in 

1,1* 
6,  5 

\ 

Rome  founded. 
Romulus  king. 

Egypt. 

9,1) 
13,4) 

First     Messenian  ) 

*  See  "  Comparative  View,"  &c,  as  above,  title  "  Olympiads,"  page  88,  and  note 
to  page  115. 


490 


CHRONOLOGICAL    TABLE. 


Olym- 
piads. 


14,3 
23,3 

27,1 
43,3 
46,2 

54,4 
67,3 

72,2 
80,2 

81,4 


a 


87,1 
93 

94,1 
97,2 
102,1 

102,2 
105,4 


,8) 


110 

110,4 
112,1 


118,1 


124,4 

128,4 

144 
138,2 


,3) 


145,3 

152,4 

158,2 

179,1 
182,4 


Years 
B.  C. 


721 

68Q 

to 
671 

605 

594  | 

560 


490 

438 

452 

431 
to 
404 

403 

390 

371 


356 

to 
338 

336$ 
331} 

321  j 
307? 


197 


146 


Events  of  Greece. 


SecondMessenian 
war 


Solon,  archon 
Athens 

Peisistratus  .. 


of, 


Contests  with  Per- 
sia commence 


■1 


Internal     dissen- 
sions  


Peloponnesianwar. 

Thirty  Tyrants  in  ) 
Athens \ 


Boeotian  war 

Battle  of  Leuctra. 

Return  of  Messe- 
nians 

Sacred  wars,  end- 
ing  in  battle  of  [ 
Cheronea 

Alexander  the 
Great  subdues 
Persia 

Division  of  his 
empire 

Demetrius  Polior- 
cetes takes  Ath- 
ens  

Achaean  league... 

Internal  dissen- 
sions   


Cleomenes       i 
Sparta 

Battle    of    Cyno-1 
scephalae 

Battle  of  Pydna... 

Battle  of  Corinth, 
and  fall  of  Greece 


Events  of  Rome. 


Numa  Pompilius. 


TarquiniusPriscus. 
Servius  Tullius.     j 

Kings  expelled. 

Contests  between 
Plebeians  and  Pa- 
tricians. 


The  Romans  send 
toGreeceforlaws; 
whence  12  tables 
framed. 


IncursionofGauls. 


Contentions 

between 

Patricians  and 

Plebeians. 


Power  extended. 


Pyrrhus  of  Epirus ) 
contends  with  > 
Rome ) 

Punic  wars. 

Roman        power 

greatly  extended. 

Rome  interferes  in 

the    affairs 

Greece 


Events  of  other  Nations. 


Israel  subverted  by  As- 
syria. 


Seventy  years'  captiv- 
ity of  Jews  begins. 

Babylon    falls   before 
Cyrus. 


Ezra  renews   ancient 

system      of     polity 
among  the  Jews. 


Palestine  under  Persia 

till  the  time  of 
Alexander  the  Great ; 

thence  under  his 
Successors  in  Syria. 


Ptolemy  of  Egypt  con- 
quers Palestine. 


Parthia    rises,  under 
Arsaces. 


Jews  subject  to  Syria. 

Jews  under  Macca- 
bees throw  off  Syri- 
an yoke. 

Carthage  falls. 

Jerusalem  opened  to 
Pompey. 


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